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It's one of the world's greatest mysteries - how did the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids?
It's as vexing as the riddle of the Sphinx. And the truth is, no one really knows how they built the pyramids.
But amateur Egyptologist Maureen Clemmons has a theory. She thinks that kites may have been used to build the pyramids.
"If you look at the top center of every monument, you see wings," Clemmons said. "I think the Egyptians have been trying to tell us in pictures for 3000 years that this is how they built the pyramids."
Her idea - to build a pyramid you harness the desert wind using kites to lift the stones. She got a team of aeronautic engineers from Caltech to help her test the theory.
"At the beginning, we were ourselves very critical of her ideas but then we started to think more about it and we said, 'why not? let's try it,'" said Mary Gharid of Caltech.
The engineers worked out the math and designed a system of nylon ropes and pulleys. Each pulley quadruples the amount of weight a single kite can pull.
"So, we're using one kite in 15 mile per hour winds to lift up a three and half ton block," said Caltech student Emilio Castano.
Yesterday, in the Mojave Desert, they put their theory to the test using a nylon kite, three pulleys and an obelisk that weighs nearly four tons.
The wind speed had to be just right. And miraculously, it worked. There was more than enough force to hoist the obelisk. The total airtime? Only twenty-five seconds.
But the fact that it can be done, doesn't necessarily mean that's how the ancient Egyptians did it.
"There's absolutely no evidence for kites in ancient Egypt," said Professor Carol Redmount of UC Berkeley. "There's no evidence of pulleys as we know them today."
Redmount says the historical evidence points to the "Charlton Hesont method." Which basically relies on the theory of the muscle of slaves pushing pulleys and creating the pyramids.
But the Caltech group will have none of that.
"All I can remember from history is that Egyptians drank beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and as someone who has done field research on drinking beer, I know after I've had two beers and its really hot, I'm not pushing or pulling anything," Clemmons said. "So, I figured I'd try to think another way."
(Agencies)
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古代埃及人是如何建造金字塔的？--這一直是縈繞在人們心頭的謎團之一。
這個問題和古埃及司芬克思的謎語一樣令人費解。說真的，沒人知道古埃及人到底是如何建造了金字塔。
 不過作為一名業余埃及學家，毛瑞恩-克萊蒙斯提出了一個新的看法，在她看來，古埃及人借助了風箏的力量造出了金字塔。
克萊蒙斯說："如果抬頭仰視每座金字塔的頂部的話，你會看到翅膀的影子。我覺得在過去的3000多年當中，古埃及人試圖讓我們由這些塔頂構成的畫面想象出他們是如何修建金字塔的。"
克萊蒙斯認為，憑借沙漠里的風力，古埃及人利用風箏來抬升石塊。她還從加州科技大學找來一批飛行學工程師幫她驗證這個想法。
加州科技大的瑪麗-嘉利德說："起初我們對她的看法也持批判態度，進一步思考之后，我們認為干嗎不試試看呢？"
工程師們從數學上進行了論證，并設計出一個由尼龍繩子和滑輪構成的工作系統。每個滑輪的重量是每只風箏載重量的4倍。
科技大學生艾米利奧-加斯塔諾說："我們要用一只風箏在風速為每小時15英里的情況下抬起3噸半重的石塊。"
昨天，在莫家烏沙漠，他們用一只尼龍風箏、三個滑輪組和一個近4噸重的方尖石來檢驗他們的理論。
風速必須得恰倒好處才行。別說，這個方法真的奇跡般的成功了。風箏很輕松地就抬起了方尖石，而且只用了25秒鐘。
不過實驗的成功并不等于說古埃及人確實使用了這種方法建造了金字塔。
伯克利大學的卡羅爾-萊蒙特教授說："沒有證據可以證明古埃及人使用過風箏，也沒有證據證明埃及人擁有和我們今天使用的一樣的滑輪。"
萊蒙特教授說歷史證據支持"查爾頓-海森特修建方案"，這種理論認為古埃及人利用大批奴隸和當時的一種滑輪修建了金字塔。
可是加州科技大的這批人可不這么看。
克萊蒙說："我從歷史中得知埃及人一日三餐都少不了啤酒。當你在野外工作時來上兩瓶啤酒，你就會全身冒火，更談不上去干推拉重物的活了。所以，我要尋找一種不同于'查爾頓-海森特修建方案'的古埃及人修建金字塔的方式。"
(中國日報網站譯)
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Updated: 2001-07-02 01:00
