With the right camera modifications, you don't have to remove
any layers from a chip to discern the core count:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130561288@N04/48258310027/ That's an IR photograph taken with a Sony APS-C camera that the IR-blocking filter has been removed from. That's enough to make out the cores and L3 cache slices. (The rest of Fritzchens Fritz's flickr uploads are worth checking out too, especially the video showing how he preps a die for visible light photography.)