Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Dwayne <dwayne@pobox.com> writes:
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.
>
> > 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).
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?
Dwayne
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