# chariots of the gods **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029 "2010-02-15T03:11:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/61 "2010-02-17T05:30:42Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Even if the answer is ‘we don’t know exactly how they did it’ that doesn’t equal ‘it must have been space aliens!’. > > -XT On the space aliens of the gaps theory, Richard Feynman famously made the point that there are probably tens of thousands of robberies in America every year. Most of them are solved. A certain percentage resist solution, so we don’t know who did them or maybe even exactly how. Doesn’t mean that aliens did them. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/62 "2010-02-17T06:00:54Z")
What about the Greek fire thing? I remember vaguely one of the sequels saying that Greek fire was due to ALIEN technology! And what about the cave painting I mentioned? Wish I had a copy of the book so that I could quote, and we could analyze. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/63 "2010-02-17T06:03:07Z")
> [@tpgonetosea](#): > > has anyone read ‘chariots of the gods?’ it was written in the early 70’s regarding evidence for the theory that aliens have been influencing our planet and evolution since the start of civilisation. I wonder if any serious thought/research has been carried out in the 40 or so years since to test these theories. Neither after or before. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/64 "2010-02-17T08:04:52Z")
> [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](#): > > What about the Greek fire thing? I remember vaguely one of the sequels saying that Greek fire was due to ALIEN technology! What about Greek fire? It was probably a petroleum byproduct…probably naphtha mixed with resin to make it sticky. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/65 "2010-02-17T08:42:16Z")
xtisme writes: \> What I find hard to believe is why this stuff is making a come back now. It’s like \> someone is resurrecting the goofy theories from the 70’s or something…lately \> there has been a deluge of Bermuda Triangle shows as well. Bigfoot also seems \> to be making a serious comeback, at least if History Channel is any indication. The History Channel will show any piece of crap that they can dig up. They don’t give any thought to whether it’s remotely plausible. Unless you see books advocating these ideas in (new) bookstores or documentaries about them on broadcast TV, all this proves is that some cable networks are desperate for cheap programming. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/66 "2010-02-17T13:06:21Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Not really. Someone, I think it was Asimov, once said that scientists just couldn’t be bothered with crackpots such as Däniken and Velikovsky, much less tearing out their hair. Asimov actually wrote an essay debunking Velikovsky, “Worlds in Confusion” which is collected in his book, “The Stars in their Courses”. I think he enjoyed the opportunity to combine some astronomy with bible history. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/67 "2010-02-17T13:17:50Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I think he enjoyed the opportunity to combine some astronomy with bible history. Most probably. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/68 "2010-02-17T13:49:14Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > He talks about the building of the pyramids, and that there are carvings (hieroglyphics? sorry, I’m fuzzy on the details) deep in the inner tunnels. They would have needed light, but there are no signs of blackening from the smoke of torches on the ceilings, and no sign of such blackening having been removed. Therefore, obviously, the aliens must have provided the builders with electric lights (hopefully, those cool LED flashlights). As said, they might have carved (using tools called “Occam’s razors”) the decor at the point when that level was at the top of the construction and open-air. Or they fit stones together outside on the ground, carved them there according to the design and numbered each one, and then installed them accordingly, like we know damn well the Greeks and everyone after them did. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/69 "2010-02-17T18:41:52Z")
Speaking of the pyramids, one of the other big questions that Von Daniken and others love to talk about is: Where are the ramps? How could ancient Egyptians possibly have gotten those multi-ton stone blocks waaaaay up there without ramps? Where’s the evidence of the ramps? There is no evidence of any ramps, therefore it must have been space aliens’ anti-gravity machines (nevermind the question on the other side of that answer, which is: why would the space aliens use their advanced technology to help the natives build a large structure using just naturally occurring stone? Why didn’t they make the pyramids out of gleaming titanium?) Except that it has recently been shown that the ramps are there, INSIDE the pyramid itself. They built the ramps as they went, stacking the blocks outside of the ramp. [Jean-Pierre Houdin](http://ngccommunity.nationalgeographic.com/ngcblogs/inside-ngc/2008/11/unlocking-the-great-pyramid---part-1.html) toiled for years on the puzzle of the ramps before coming up with that solution (which, to me, seems “obvious” with the benefit of hindsight). This is a great example of how something can seem mysterious or impossible at first glance (and second, and third . . .) until someone finally discovers that the ancients were a heck of a lot smarter than we usually give them credit for. I remember Von Daniken also rasing the question of how the Egyptians could possibly have housed and fed the thousands of workers. And that, too, has recently been answered by uncovering the vast housing areas, and the kitchens that prepared the huge amounts of food, etc. As other posters have said, just because we don’t have the definitive answer TODAY, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a terrestrial answer. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/70 "2010-02-17T20:54:44Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > Speaking of the pyramids, one of the other big questions that Von Daniken and others love to talk about is: Where are the ramps? How could ancient Egyptians possibly have gotten those multi-ton stone blocks waaaaay up there without ramps? Where’s the evidence of the ramps? There is no evidence of any ramps, therefore it must have been space aliens’ anti-gravity machines (nevermind the question on the other side of that answer, which is: why would the space aliens use their advanced technology to help the natives build a large structure using just naturally occurring stone? Why didn’t they make the pyramids out of gleaming titanium?) > > Except that it has recently been shown that the ramps are there, INSIDE the pyramid itself. They built the ramps as they went, stacking the blocks outside of the ramp. [Jean-Pierre Houdin](http://ngccommunity.nationalgeographic.com/ngcblogs/inside-ngc/2008/11/unlocking-the-great-pyramid---part-1.html) toiled for years on the puzzle of the ramps before coming up with that solution (which, to me, seems “obvious” with the benefit of hindsight). The cite says it is a theory. Shown? When I was there, last April, we got told that they piled sand around the pyramid as needed, and dragged the blocks up the sand ramp. Cheap, simple, and no problem of what happened to the ramp. Sounds a lot simpler than dragging the last blocks up an increasingly twisty ramp towards the top. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/71 "2010-02-17T21:39:44Z")
Building a sand and rubble ramp along the outside edge of the pyramid - basically extending the pyramid by a few dozen feet outward to make a ramp that wraps around the pyramid - this is significantly less work and less volume than building a Masada-style straight ramp across the desert floor. It has the added bonus that you can face the pyramid in limestone wrking your way down as you remove the ramp. I guess the question is, it’s still a decent volume of sand - any indication where it went? A very good book was by L. Sprague de Camp called “The Ancient Engineers”. ( [http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Engineers-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345320298](http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Engineers-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345320298) ) which I read about the same time EVD’s crap came out. Pyramid construction shows the ingenuity of early builders. The fine stone fitting “can’t slip a knife blade between them” was accomplished by fitting stones together on the ground for finishing before they were hauled away; fit A to B, haul away A, fint B to C, haul away B, etc. Not rocket science, just pyramid science. You can see this because the stones are slightly out of shape where they were shaved to fit together. Another thing I wondered about. I think it was EVD in some book describes a mummy with a wrap of “finer weaving than anything we can do today”. Really? That set off my BS meter. We have microscopes and fine chemical etching to create electronc circuits and machine parts with smaller holes and shapes than are visible to the naked eye (even in 1970). We make nylon and orlon and other artificial fibers in whatever thickness we want. “Finer weaving than we can do”? …or finer than we bother to do commercially? Silk spun and wovern in the far east, so fine it looks smooth, has been the norm for centuries. Just how fine could Mayan/Aztec/Inca weave be, to impress us? ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/72 "2010-02-17T21:42:25Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The cite says it is a theory. Shown? When I was there, last April, we got told that they piled sand around the pyramid as needed, and dragged the blocks up the sand ramp. Cheap, simple, and no problem of what happened to the ramp. Sounds a lot simpler than dragging the last blocks up an increasingly twisty ramp towards the top. Either way, the point stands that just because for a long time we modern people scratch our heads and think, “How could the ancients possibly have done this?” doesn’t mean that the ancients needed extraterrestrial help. Sometimes, we’re biased by our modern experience and the way we build things. Ancient humans are pretty much every bit as intelligent as we are and, faced with a necessity we’ve never had to actually deal with, could easily have come up with a solution that would take us a while to “rediscover”. I saw the Nat Geo special mentioned at the bottom of the link, and they showed some pretty compelling evidence on the pyramid itself of an internal ramp structure. They found an opening near one corner where something that looked an awful lot like a ramp was visible inside. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/73 "2010-02-17T22:11:53Z")
There’s even a fellow in Michigan who’s come up with a low-tech method for moving blocks, and is single-handedly using it to build a full-scale replica Stonehenge in his back yard. [He estimates](http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/newpage2) that his methods could be used to build the Pyramids in 25 years, with a work force of 740, without need for ramps (and that’s even assuming a modern work schedule, with 40-hour-weeks and two weeks of vacation a year). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/74 "2010-02-17T22:31:20Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > The two hour show I mentioned earlier up thread brought up the lighting thing btw…while showing a cool carving that supposedly depicted a light bulb while implying that this must have been how they did it. LOL … is it really plausible that aliens who are capable of interstellar travel would still be using LIGHT BULBS as light sources? A hundred years from now light bulbs will be as obsolete as gas lamps and floppy disks. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/75 "2010-02-17T22:39:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s even a fellow in Michigan who’s come up with a low-tech method for moving blocks, and is single-handedly using it to build a full-scale replica Stonehenge in his back yard. [He estimates](http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/newpage2) that his methods could be used to build the Pyramids in 25 years, with a work force of 740, without need for ramps (and that’s even assuming a modern work schedule, with 40-hour-weeks and two weeks of vacation a year). IIRC - CJ Cherryh, a science fiction author and former history teacher, mentioned once in an article that she had her students pulling around two-ton blocks on skids to demonstrate how the Egyptians could have done it. She said it didn’t take too many high-school football players pulling ropes to get a big block moving at a fairly respectable speed. I think sometimes we underestimate our physical ability in this age of John Deere and Chevy Pickups. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/76 "2010-02-18T01:03:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Hey, [Earth Girls are Easy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Girls_Are_Easy) But the [Amazon Women are On The Moon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_women_on_the_moon). [Could never figure out why I see the former on various TV channels all the time, the latter I never do…] ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/77 "2010-02-18T01:15:09Z")
[QUOTE=The Hamster King] LOL … is it really plausible that aliens who are capable of interstellar travel would still be using LIGHT BULBS as light sources? A hundred years from now light bulbs will be as obsolete as gas lamps and floppy dis [/QUOTE] Hardly…but then, how plausible is it that interstellar aliens with the technology that entails would build stone buildings? Why wouldn’t they have built them out of some advanced materials? And if they WERE using light bulbs and such, were are they? We have other artifacts from the period, after all…why don’t we have even a trace of wires…of something? Instead we are shown (breathlessly) the Baghdad Battery as ‘proof’ of advanced technology! It’s funny that all of the materials are those that any one from that period used day to day. I mean, space fairing aliens don’t even use NiCad or Lithium Ion materials, let alone super space age composites and nano-tech carbon fibers (or whatever they would have with technology centuries ahead of ours)?? It IS fun to watch though if you haven’t seen the one I’m talking about. There is this guy wearing a suit that looks like it’s 30 years out of date who has wild hair and is VERY enthusiastic about the whole thing. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/78 "2010-02-18T03:45:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > If you replace “year” with “thirty seconds” you’d be closer to the facts. > > There’s always a bestselling nutcase who dazzles the masses with nonsense that has scientists tearing out their hair. Before van Daniken was [Velikovsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky). Now we have the “world is doomed in 2012” morons. They’re cockroaches of the anti-intellectual world. They will be the only things alive after the sun blows up into a red star in five billion years. Except for the morons who keep buying their books. We never seem to run out of them either. Correct. . ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/79 "2010-02-18T05:39:21Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Better that than carrying a book called “To Serve Man.” And much better than one called “How To Cook Humans.” ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029/80 "2010-02-18T11:31:31Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Another thing I wondered about. I think it was EVD in some book describes a mummy with a wrap of “finer weaving than anything we can do today”. Really? That set off my BS meter. We have microscopes and fine chemical etching to create electronc circuits and machine parts with smaller holes and shapes than are visible to the naked eye (even in 1970). We make nylon and orlon and other artificial fibers in whatever thickness we want. “Finer weaving than we can do”? …or finer than we bother to do commercially? Silk spun and wovern in the far east, so fine it looks smooth, has been the norm for centuries. Just how fine could Mayan/Aztec/Inca weave be, to impress us? I can handspin 3 linen fibres together, which can’t be done mechanically. Also cotton and wool can be spun amazingly finely by hand and not mechanically. It simply is not economically feasible to do this on a commercial scale. Hand spinning is pretty much a lost art except in recreationist/hobbyist circles, and certain peasant groups that are still seminomadic. Weaving these fibres is also not really able to be done mechanically but can be done on the low tech low tension looms [like say a backstrap loom] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chariots-of-the-gods/529029.md?page=5)