Replies

> One question I'd have is, how much time does it take for this to work?

Excellent question: one which favors some form of significant mechanical efficiency about moving them. I can't imagine it being done "Moses" style, with a few hundred Israelites pushing huge rocks against the unaided force of gravity. I've no doubts that the Egyptians would make Israelites do it, mind: but I think they'd probably be clever enough to find a more efficient use of their resources.

Let's say one Israelite per leg, one on either side of the rocker, and say four managing guy ropes to ensure the entire contraption didn't spill over. Ten guys per stone: the only trick would be to get the stone aloft so it could Murphy-Moved, and that could be done easily enough with a block-and-tackle...

No, in my mind's eye, I think Murphy might well be onto something pretty clever. Even if it wasn't what was actually used, it could almost certainly work just fine for moving big rocks.

(Maybe it was a Murphy who built Stonehenge...?)

some old stuff from the hard drive; first instance, from Whitley Streiber's site:

Kites lift an obelisk
Maureen Clemmons, a business consultant who has spent 4 years on the project, says the idea for using wind power to move heavy objects came to her in 1997 after she read a magazine article speculating on how the ancient Egyptians had moved stones that weighed about 5,000 pounds each. She was inspired by tales of Viking ships sailing across land on log rollers, using wind power. In 1999, she brought the idea to scientists at the California Institute of Technology. Two people flew the 30-foot kite, fitted with an elaborate system of pulleys, and took less than 5 minutes to raise the 6,900 pound concrete obelisk four times.

from Biblical Archaeology Review:

How to Raise an Obelisk
[Field Notes]
An aeronautics team at the California Institute of Technology is testing a new idea: that the Egyptians may have used a kite (or wind sail) and pulleys to move heavy objects like obelisks and pyramid blocks. Last June, a team led by Caltech aeronautical engineer Mory Gharib used the kite-and-pulley system to lift a 15-foot-long, 6,900-pound concrete obelisk into a standing position. Gharib told Archaeology Odyssey that this same setup could lift up to 16,000 pounds. Of course, none of this proves that the Egyptians actually used kites to transport stones, a point that Gharib readily acknowledges. The purpose of his experiment, he said, is only to show that the system works and that the Egyptians, if they had kites, might have raised obelisks in this manner.