# Aliens built the pyramids

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 29, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943 "2024-04-29T22:08:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 8

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### Author: ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/141 "2024-11-06T20:02:33Z")

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There are a lot more choices than rollers, maybe wheels, and dragging big blocks across sand. For example, you can make an A frame and basically lever the blocks forward. Then move the A frame and repeat, essentially “walking” the stones across the ground.

Edward Leedskalnin was a bit secretive about his exact methods, but we know that he built Coral Castle using things like A frames and block and tackle systems because we have a handful of photos that show such devices. I don’t know if the Egyptians had block and tackle systems (I believe the earliest evidence of pulleys comes from slightly after the pyramids) but they definitely had levers, which can accomplish the same thing in a lot of cases.

The Egyptians had a definite lack of modern knowledge. They didn’t even know how to make arches yet (which pretty much proves aliens didn’t build the pyramids, anyone with a more sophisticated understanding of construction wouldn’t have been limited to just stacking blocks). But the Egyptians weren’t stupid. If you can’t brute force things with modern heavy machinery, then you need to rely more on human creativity. I seriously doubt that they just stupidly dragged huge stone blocks across the sand. They were a lot smarter than that.

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### Author: ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/142 "2024-11-06T23:07:48Z")

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Of course, if you really REALLY want to know how the pyramids were built, search the SDMB for the word “mustta”. Be sure to block off a weekend or two to read the thread…

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### Author: ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/143 "2024-11-06T23:52:05Z")

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> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> For example, you can make an A frame and basically lever the blocks forward. Then move the A frame and repeat, essentially “walking” the stones across the ground.

This sounds a LOT easier than dragging.

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### Author: ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/144 "2024-11-07T00:16:02Z")

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> [@Tierce](#):
>
> Of course, if you really REALLY want to know how the pyramids were built, search the SDMB for the word “mustta”. Be sure to block off a weekend or two to read the thread…

Is that the guy who was sure they used “cold geysers”?

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### Author: ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/145 "2024-11-07T00:34:47Z")

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Funny how that orange cone of yours looks like a pyramid. You ain’t a alien, is ya?

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### Author: ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/146 "2024-11-07T00:36:58Z")

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https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7170760830336699654

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### Author: ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/147 "2024-11-07T00:50:50Z")

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Since you can’t see the scale of the image - - um, no. Not an alien.

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### Author: ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/148 "2024-11-07T09:29:28Z")

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Every time I see this thread, I’m reminded of a scene from _Red Dwarf_.

> [@](#):
>
> Lister: Your explanation for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn’t it? You lose your keys, it’s aliens. A picture falls off the wall, it’s aliens. That time we used up a whole bog roll in a day, you thought that was aliens as well.
> 
> Rimmer: Well we didn’t use it all, Lister. Who did?
> 
> Lister: Rimmer, ALIENS used our bog roll?

I can’t help hearing the thread title in a Scouse accent; “ALIENS built the pyramids?”

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### Author: ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/149 "2024-11-07T13:41:21Z")

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One thing that gets lost is that, even though it was 2.3 million blocks of stone, the vast majority of them were in the lower third. Once they got past about half way up, the number of blocks that had to be stacked dropped rapidly. And the structural part (chambers) is in the bottom half of the pyramid, so dragging those last blocks up was merely a matter of getting them up there and moving them around. The higher they went, the fewer the blocks.

The casing is the part we know the least about, it seems.

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### Author: ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/150 "2024-11-07T18:37:25Z")

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> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> Is that the guy who was sure they used “cold geysers”?

Yes, geyser guy. Who had also come up with his own translation of hieroglyphics, that made so much more sense than the rubbish that the Egyptologists had come up with (if you assumed the pyramids were built using geysers, that is).

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### Author: ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/151 "2024-11-07T18:43:24Z")

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Thanks. He was just iconic.

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### Author: ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2024, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aliens-built-the-pyramids/1000943/152 "2024-11-08T02:47:08Z")

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There is, or at least was, a fellow in Michigan named Wally Wallington who’s been single-handedly, using only his own muscle power, building a full-sized replica of Stonehenge in his back yard, using techniques that could plausibly have been known to the ancients. His own site on the project seems to be gone now, but IIRC, he calculated that, using his methods, a team of 1000 workers could have built the Great Pyramid in 30 years.

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