I've been wondering for a while if something like this was possible, and if perhaps there was a time when it was done commonly.

What got me thinking about it is when I heard it mentioned that in many of these ancient tombs and temples and pyramids, there is absolutely no soot on the ceilings that you would get from oil lamps or torches. You might be able to stumble around with just a candle in a lantern, but many of them are covered with elaborate paintings or carvings that are just unimaginable to have been created by candlelight.

So some people will think of something like the "Dendera light bulb". I thought so for a long time. But then it occurred to me that that's almost certainly not the solution to the puzzle.

If you look at the modern installation of lighting in these places, such as the Great Pyramid, what do you see? Light bulbs, yes, but not just that. There are cords and cables laying all over the floors providing the power. The Dendera bulb even seems to have a cable.

But would the ancients have built these magnificent structures, then left tripping hazards all over them? No. At the very, very least, they would have mounted them to the walls. They don't do that now, of course, because they don't want to damage the walls. But there's no trace anywhere of bulbs or cables or mounts or where mounts used to be. Nothing.

If we really open up our imaginations, well, maybe they had perpetually glowing orbs that the alien overlords gave them! Okay, so where are the sconces where they mounted the orbs? They don't exist.

Okay, maybe they only had a few orbs so they had to carry around orb "torches". Well, where are the brackets you could put your torch into? They don't exist either. Build the Great Pyramid and forget to put a hole in the wall to shove your torch into? Uh, even if you forgot, you'd just drill some in later, right?

Pretty long story but maybe, just maybe, those fuckers could see in the damn dark.