The Pyramids are an engineering marvel which, to my understanding, until today cannot be duplicated who planned it? (I remember once hearing a super strange theory I was wondering if this "theory" is widely known.)
asked Oct 26, 2011 at 12:09
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4The "[...]until today can not be duplicated[...]" is a fallacy. Rome, Pre-Colombian civilisations, and early China Empire (to name but a few) all had the technology to build monuments akin to the pyramids. Maybe not in the same place and in the same style but that hardly matters. The trick is how did the Egyptian did it with the technology they had. "Aliens did it" may work for your super strange theory.– Sardathrion - against SE abuseOct 26, 2011 at 12:26
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1@Napoleonothecake: No, not all history questions are easily answered by a quick google search. Most are not, in fact. Your generally (but not always) are. This one isn't, because it's based on an incorrect assumption.– Lennart RegebroOct 26, 2011 at 13:44
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2Ditto @MichaelF I find it odd also that the Egyptians needed some supernatural effort to build the Pyramids but every just accepts that the Chinese used millions of slaves to build the Great Wall.– Rincewind42Oct 26, 2011 at 14:50
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3I'm giving this a -1 because there is no clear question here. You hint at some kind of theory but expect an explanation without naming it. "Who was the mind behind it?" Are you requesting the name of the designer who planned the first pyramid, or alluding to your alien theory and looking for for evidence? Edit your post to ask a real, answerable question.– Travis ChristianOct 26, 2011 at 14:52
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2I'm not sure what is being asked here. Who planned the pyramids as in a person? Which civilization? Or is this a Skeptics issue regarding the "super strange theory" you allude to but never actually ask about? I'm sorry, I have to close this as vague and incomplete.– Robert CartainoOct 27, 2011 at 15:49
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1 Answer
That we don't know exactly how they did it doesn't mean that we can't duplicate what they did. There are no exact descriptions of precisely how the great pyramids were built, and that means we will never know for sure how they were built. But it does not mean that they had some ancient and mysterious knowledge that has been lost, or that it was aliens, or anything else like that. All it means is that any theory we have is a guess.
It is important to remember that the Pyramids weren't just a sudden invention. Pyramids developed from other types of buildings over hundreds of years, and the building techniques with it. Many of the techniques developed would however have been forgotten when new technological developments made them obsolete. There is therefore nothing weird in that we don't know exactly how it was done.
Building a whole pyramid with the ancient technology would be so expensive to do today that it will never be done. But many experiments on a smaller scale have been done the last hundred years to test various theories. As such we now have a reasonable knowledge of how it was done, even though we will never know for sure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques
The most important part to remember here that there is nothing that says that it wasn't doable with the building knowledge of that age. There is hence nothing mysterious about the building of the Pyramids.
