The Statues in Egypt Used to Have Eyeballs

Katlyn Roberts thought she knew a lot about Egyptian artifacts, but made a new discovery on her second visit to the Cairo Museum. Locals know it, some visitors know it, but it's not common knowledge that many ancient Egyptian statues were made with realistic glass and crystal eyes. The effect is very different from looking at a statue with cold, blank, stone eyes.

I was looking at a person, not a statue. I’d never experienced anything like this before in my life. I was seeing ancient Egypt through a whole new dimension. I felt like all I needed to do was reach out and brush the clay from his face and he would blink and his cheek would be hot to the touch. Either he was here or I was there but one of us was outside of our space-time and acknowledging the other.

I was having a deeply existential experience.

And that was after she'd already seen other statues with glass eyes. You can see them, too, and read about the delightful tour guide who revealed this secret, at Medium.

(Image credit: Katlyn Roberts)


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