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Originally Posted by 3DMaster
Uh, no, we know WHEN the pyramids were buit, but not HOW. (^1)There are theories on how they were built, however, there are some things about the pyramids that we couldn't reproduce today, or at least would have some extreme difficulty with doing it.(^2)
Anyway on thing the pyramids show is that the Egyptians were much more scientifically advanced, and had much more knowledge than the established Egyptians say they had.(^3) (The exact dimensions of the Earth wrapped up inside the great pyramid for example(^4).)
The sphynx however is in a way much more interesting. Every geologist who wasn't told up front by archeologists 'when the sphynx was built' get a figure that it is at least 7,000 years old and as old as 12,500. Who built it, we don't know, but it wasn't the Egyptians, at least not the Egyptians as we know them.
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^1 We can only know when, generally, and we have a fairly good idea of how WE would do it, given their resources and time.
^2 Absolutely correct. If we had tol build a pyramid in the American Southwest there are things we would have to change about the way we did it. We would have to rail our blocks in hundreds of kilometers(using the wheel and the steam engine*) and build without a massive river to us help, for example.
^3 Absolutely. In fact with few exceptions I concur with the statements that archaeologists seriously underestimate the skill of ancient civilizations' abilities across the board. Those peoples worked to the peak limits of their available materials and energy resources to build some amazing things. Given enough time and enough men you can build anything to the load limits of wood, stone and the lift limits of muscle powered lever, wedge, and when you have it pulley and wheel. Astute use of mass inertia gravity and kinetic energy give you mechanical advantages that we assume we have due to our machines. The ancients though were able to generate those advantages with workarounds and dodges(applied physics). Stone, wood, muscle, and bone. If you concede the equivalence of mind, the pyramids are well within those limits.
^4
http://www.catchpenny.org/pyramid.html Mass center distribution is off by 1/2 pi r^2 You'd be closer if the thing were in Antartica.
^5 Much of the Sphinx controversy is based on erosion evidence. Potassium argon dating of any chisel site on the artifact's face is a better way to date the thing. Has anybody tried this?
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* It is amazing how close the Greeks came to the twin pillars of our modern strength-the combustion engine and massive iron working.
http://www.udayton.edu/~hume/Steam/steam.htm
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Greeks.htm
Now toss in the Baghdad battery and the routine knowledge of electroplating silver? What happened?
Makes you want to throttle those numbskulls who burned the library of Alexandria.
That set us back 2000 years.
