Did the Ancient Egyptians Build the Great Pyramids with Hot Air Balloons?

Originally posted by Hefficide

I could see balloons being utilized as an assisted lift apparatus. Mixed with some variation of a ramp concept (as pictured in the diagram) and with human/animal labor - balloons could have been very helpful in pulling blocks up a highly inclined surface.

So as an augmentation to other sources of lift, it seems like a credible concept to me.

That's where my thoughts were going as I read this great thread, I was also thinking about many or a number at least of smaller balloons, another poster mentioned attaching wooden frames to blocks then rolling them I'm sure I've seen this method on ytube, tbh they're all good calls, lol!

One thing about the Egyptians is their irrigation and flood control knowledge, many hundreds or even thousands of years of manipulating water like that will give a civilisation the power to move or lift heavy objects.

Not too improbable, I suppose, but it must depend heavily … on the sophistication of the balloon. Close to completely air tight, I believe you could get with finely woven linen, as said, or silk (?), that's then saturated in linseed oil, which is among the finest oils you get in ordinary paint shops today. Maybe mix it with some other materials to reduce viscosity (and flammability). Would be neat with some kind of burning material on a gondola, as someone suggested, but I think the weight of that would fast become too much. Sheets soaked in greek fire oil or something. Trench fires like with the Condor seems most practical, but I'm certain they could fashion some sort of tube to attach as well. Lastly, you would need a venting mechanism (arrows) so you can speed up the process and make sure the block doesn't simply fly into the night. Just patch it up with tar and you're good to go

What about a thousand oxen? Just dig some narrow streets so they can only move one way, then attach ropes to fixed harnesses and whip away. Cut the ropes when you don't need more force. They probably spoke cow anyway. Numbers like that would certainly compensate for the reduction in force due to pulleys. With the kind of farmlands they had, I don't see why they should lack for food and the Sahara was maybe grassland at this point.

Seeing as there's been found some insidiously carved obsidian, I think it highly probable the ancients had electricity at some point, if not always known to the secretive elites. Doesn't take more than playing around with metals and acids, but then, how to produce so much energy as would be needed for this? Like the batteries of Baghdad x a million. The Victoria Falls themselves would maybe not be enough for the heaviest blocks. Also, you would need mile long cables of some considerable quality. Guess you could have smelted the copper in place, but then we would surely have found it by now.