From: Dwayne (dwayne@pobox.com)
Date: Fri May 07 1999 - 01:10:31 MDT
Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Dwayne <dwayne@pobox.com> writes:
>
> > The lower courses of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck are,
> > according to the quotes I have seen, too massive to be moved using
> > currently available technology. Now, these may be quotes from
> > engineers who have vested interests, or they might be correct.
>
> A quick look at the some websites mentions a 1000 ton carved stone in
> the quarry, and the Trilithon of three 800 ton stones. This is
> definitely in the range of modern technology (the "turtle" they move
> the space shuttle on can carry much more).
Sue, it can carry it, but do we have the technology to lift such objects?
The quote I saw said that modern engineers could not transport such an
object, I'm assuming that means lift and move.
Also, the turtle the move the space shuttle on moves vewwy vewwy slowly,
along a very flat surface.
I'm not saying you're wrong and super-alien-beings from the past tossed big
rocks around, it's just that I have heard all sorts of theories pro and
con, but when I have read or heard any comments from people who actually
*do* have a clue, namely civil and construction engineers, they say "hell
no we can't do that!"
There's a lot of opinions thrown around in this area, not a lot of facts,
and most of the facts are dubious.
> BTW, what would the vested interests of the engineers have been?
What makes you think they had one?
> A way
> of avoiding having to move the stones?
I would think that any engineer who tries to move part of the Great Pyramid
or the lower course of the Temple of Jupiter would be lynched, so, um, no,
I think they were just offering their professional opinion. I'm sure any
engineer with a modicum of self-respect would not short-sell his profession
on TV or in the pages of a published journal.
> Maybe the claim is simply a misunderstanding: the engineer was
> referring to a disbelief in how the ancients could have done it, and
> then it was repeated too much to become a claim about current
> inability. It fits into the "lost golden age"-meme receptors fairly
> well.
Maybe we lack the technology to move 1,000 ton blocks of stone great
distances?
Your reply fits into the "modern man can do anything the ancients could,
and better!"-meme receptors fairly well :-)
Dwayne
--
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"the cricher we kno as dwayne is only the projection
into our dimension of something much larger and wirder."
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