Hi Creigs... I suspect you are highlighting this theory with your tongue firmly in your cheek?

I recently saw a computer animation on a website (I forget which) which displays graphically some different "alternative" theories on how the stones were lifted in the construction of the pyramids. One of the theories involved large balloons (yes, balloons) lifting up the stones.

Absurd as that theory was, it sounds reasonable compared to the palpable nonsense inherent in the idea of large kites - at the mercy of gusts and other sudden strong winds (from any direction!) - being employed in this way.

Lifting an obelisk 90 degrees one way under controlled conditions with a modern kite and modern pulley systems? Possibly. Building the pyramids from every angle this way? Nonsense. It would take more effort to control the damned kites than it would to simply move the stones using the appropriate amount of manpower. Think about the scale and complexity of the ropework alone, the problem of prevailing winds etc.

The History Channel seems to fill its schedules with this type of headline-grabbing guff these days - that is, when it's not obsessing about the Nazis.

If you don't mind me asking - you know my view on your theories but I *don't* mean this in an adversarial way - but why can't you alternate history boys ever accept the simple, obvious explanation? Why are the outlandish contraptions *always* the answer? Is it simply a rejection of everything "orthodox"?

When you have vast amounts of manpower and patience - and the will of an absolute monarch - you really don't need some deux ex machine "technology" to explain human accomplishments like this. And as MJ Thomas has rightly pointed out above, surely there’d be some kind of pictorial record of anything resembling a giant kite if it had existed in this era?? It would have been the wonder of the age, and not simply a construction device to be forgotten when the pyramids were completed.

With respect Creigs, sometimes there is simply no substitute for hard graft and some good old fashioned “elbow grease”. I thoroughly enjoy reading new takes on the past, but I think there's something slightly off about denying the AEs the recognition for the blood, sweat and tears they poured into projects like this.