Seeing Through Stone: Spectroscopic Techniques and the Pyramids of Giza

Upon last month’s announcement of our new video series, “Spectroscopy Around the Globe,” we’ve been hard at work putting together the first episode of this series.¹ After considering several important world landmarks to cover in the first episode, it was decided that the Great Pyramids of Giza will be the first world landmark that we cover in this series. The Great Pyramids of Giza were one of the first major historical landmarks that I got to visit. Back in 2015, I had the opportunity to take my first trip across the pond and spend a summer in Egypt as part of a university-sponsored Summer Abroad program.

It is only fitting, therefore, that I am choosing to cover the Giza Pyramids first.

Why are the Great Pyramids of Giza important to study?

The Pyramids of Giza are among the oldest and most studied monuments on Earth. Built more than 4,500 years ago during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty, they have drawn archaeologists, engineers, and curious minds for millennia. Yet despite that long history of study, these structures still hold secrets.²

For most of that history, learning anything new about the pyramids meant going inside them, chipping away at stone, or reading what ancient sources had to say. But in the last few decades, a quiet revolution has taken place. Scientists have turned to spectroscopic and radiation-based techniques and pointed them at these ancient monuments.

Today, we can peer inside the pyramids without touching them, identify pigments on artifacts without scraping them, and map chemical changes in 4,500-year-old stone without a single pickaxe.

In the debut episode of “Spectroscopy Around the Globe,” I’ll walk you through the major spectroscopic and related analytical techniques that have been applied in studying the Giza pyramids. From infrared thermography to muon tomography, from X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, each technique tells a different part of the story of the Great Pyramids.

I am looking forward to sharing the first episode of “Spectroscopy Around the Globe” on Thursday July 2^nd.

References

1. Wetzel, W. Spectroscopy Magazine Announces New Upcoming Video Series. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/spectroscopy-magazine-announces-new-upcoming-video-series (Accessed June 16^th, 2026)
2. Wetzel, W.; Spectroscopy Staff. How Spectroscopy is Uncovering Ancient Egyptian History. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/how-spectroscopy-is-uncovering-ancient-egyptian-history (Accessed June 16^th, 2026).