This shrine was NEVER plain stone. For 2,700 years, we just couldn't see its colours. 🎨
📅 6 November 2026
The Shrine of Taharqa — built around 690 BC for a pharaoh who ruled Egypt and Kush — now stands in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, its carved sandstone long faded to beige. But hi-tech imaging has found traces of the original paint, including Egyptian blue: the world's oldest synthetic pigment.
From November 13, digital light projections will repaint the shrine exactly as Taharqa saw it.
How many other "grey" ancient monuments were actually bursting with colour? 👇