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New Theories / WHO QUARRIED BAALBEK MEGALITHS?
« on: 21/03/2021 07:53:59 »
WHO QUARRIED BAALBEK’S MEGALITHS?
BY SUHAIL JALBOUT
Baalbek’s history goes back to the first millennium BCE when the Phoenicians built an alter and a courtyard in the Beqaa Valley dedicated to their god Baal, giving Baalbek its name. This valley lies between the two Lebanese mount ranges and was a strategic trading route. When the Greeks occupied the region in 332 BCE, they enlarged the existing temple and added to it. In 47 BCE the Romans conquered Phoenicia. During their time, the Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant. When Julius Caesar settled in Baalbek in 15 BCE, he used the existing temple as a base upon and around which he started the construction of three temples for each of Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus. Today this temple of Bacchus is considered the grandest and best-preserved of all the Roman temple ruins.
The temple of Jupiter is built on top of a podium which contains three of the largest stones ever hewed by man, known as “Trilithon”. The weight of each trilithon is 800 tons. Their quarry is located 800 meters (2,624.67 feet) southeast of the temple on the slope of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. It seems that not all the stones quarried were used. One such humungous megalith was left above ground at the quarry. Recently, two similar stones were discovered buried underground. I shall detail the weights of these stones below.1
MEGALITHS IN THE QUARRY
1. The first megalith, known as the “Pregnant Woman,” is located above ground. It weighs about 1,000 tons.
2. The second megalith was discovered underground in 1990 and weighs 1,242 tons.
3. The third megalith was also discovered underground in 2014 and weighs 1,650 tons. Its average dimensions are 19.6L x 6W x 5.5H meters (64.30 x 19.69 x 18.04 feet). It is the largest ever man-cut block.
Many questions arise from the discovery of these stones, such as, who quarried the six blocks? Why were only three used in the podium, and how were they transported all the way from the quarry to the temple site? Obviously, one would assume that any one of the three civilizations, the Phoenician, the Greek or the Roman, quarried them. Many believe that it was the Romans who quarried the stones. Personally, I do not agree with this general belief for the following reasons:
1. All the majestic ruins of the Romans do not have massive megaliths—this can also be said about the Phoenicians and the Greeks. The size of the stones they quarried and used in other locations are much smaller than the ones found in Baalbek. For example, only few individual stones used in the ancient Roman Pont du Gard aqueduct in France that supplies 40,000 cubic meters of water per day are 6 tons.
2. It is obvious that the structure of the great megalithic podium has a different pattern of construction to the Roman temple built above it.
3. The podium megalith stones are weathered more than the stones in the temple of Jupiter. This can only mean that the megaliths are older.
4. The many fabulous Roman ruins are evidence to the ancient Roman’s expertise in design, architecture, civil engineering, and planning. So, one wonders as to why would they invest in time, manpower and money to quarry such huge megaliths and not use them. Leaving three megaliths in the quarry (there may be more yet undiscovered) does not reflect the Roman professionalism. This leads me to conclude that they were not the ones who quarried the megaliths. They may not even have known of their existence.
AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
If the Romans did not quarry the megaliths, who did?
There is evidence that the Beqaa Valley was inhabited by an ancient civilization as early as 9,000 BCE. I tend to believe that these people, who existed in the Valley around 10,000 BCE or earlier, quarried the six megalith stones to build a temple on some high ground in the area now known as Baalbek. They may have transported three stones to use in the podium construction and before they had a chance to transport the other three, a universal cataclysm occurred on our planet. As a result, the civilization was wiped out, the temple stood unfinished, and the quarry was covered with debris. The situation remained unchanged until the Phoenicians came to the Valley, discovered the unfinished podium, and decided to build their temple as discussed above.
Is there any evidence for such a civilization to have settled in the Beqaa Valley? To answer this question, we need to investigate the archaeological site Gobekli Tepe.2
In 1996 the world’s oldest temple was discovered in Gobekli Tepe in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey some 500 kilometers (310.69 miles) north of Baalbek. The site is a Tell (hill) 15 meters (49.21 feet) high. It was constructed around 10,000 BCE or earlier. T shaped stone pillars were made in a nearby quarry, transported to the site, and then lifted to their place in the temple. The pillars were arranged to form many circles. Two large pillars were placed in the middle of each circle. The pillars’ heights were up to 6 meters (19.69 feet) and weighted 10-20 tons each. One such pillar still in the quarry weighs 50 tons. As of May 2020, more than 200 pillars in about 20 circles were discovered and they are carved with animal shapes, mystic drawings, and abstract symbols. Researchers found that Gobekli Tepe was built according to a precise architectural plan. If one were to join the centers of three of the circles, the lines would form a nearly perfect equilateral triangle. The details of the structure’s function remain a mystery. The purpose of the site could be a temple for worship, a burial place, or an astronomical observation center. The T shaped stone pillars were also discovered in many nearby places to Gobekli Tepe, such as, in Hamazan Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Tasli Tepe and Harbetsuvan Tepe.
These ancient people, who constructed the circles, must have been hunter gatherers. Most probably they used to follow their game from place to place. Lebanon is the bottle neck for migrating birds between Europe and Africa3. These hunters must have followed the flying route of migratory birds to the Beqaa Valley where they established a settlement. The area is protected by mountains from the east and the west, has rivers, game, fertile land, and even wild wheat.
Large animals were domesticated for plowing and transportation, known as “beasts of burden”, between 4,000 and 3,000 BCE. Hence, it is reasonable to assume that because they had no means of transportation, they developed strong body mussels especially in their legs and arms. This means that their walking endurance and speed is equivalent to present time Olympic athletes. The average speed of a race-walker today is about 12.5 kilometers/hour (7.77 miles/hour). If we assume that their walking speed was 10 kilometers/hour (6,21 miles/hour) and they walk only 10 hours a day, we can then conclude that it will take them about 5 days to cover the 500 kilometers (310.69 miles) distance between Gobekli Tepe and Baalbek. Therefore, the probability that these people reached the Beqaa Valley and settled in it around 10,000 BCE or earlier is extremely high. Having settled in the Valley, they would have wanted to build their circular temple. Hence, it is possible that they were the ones that excavated the quarry with the huge megalithic stones to build a podium upon which they would erect their elevated temple. Most probably the steps that they performed to quarry, transport, and lift the megaliths in place are as follows:
Their first step was to cut the stones from a limestone quarry. Limestone is formed from ocean-dwelling organisms such as: oysters, clams, mussels, and coral. These organisms use calcium carbonate (CaCO3) found in seawater to create their shells and bones (Lebanon was completely submerged under seawater). When they die, the water pressure compacts the sediments thus creating limestone. As a result, limestone is extremely porous making it easy to cut with hand tools. So, most probably their quarrying technique consisted of digging a trench around the block of stone they wished to remove and then cut beneath the stone to free its base.
Their second step was to transport the blocks to the site. The limestone quarry is slightly higher in elevation than the base of the trilithon on which the podium sits by approximately 4.27 meters (14 feet). According to Google Map, the elevation of the ground at the Pregnant Woman’s block in the quarry is 1,135.38 meters (3,725 feet) and the elevation at the top of the podium is 1,145.75 meters (3,759 feet). The height of the trilithon stones is approximately 4.88 meters (16 feet) and the height of the podium is approximately 9.76 meters (32 feet).
This data allows us to calculate the elevation at the base of the trilithon as follows:
The elevation at the top of the podium is 1,145.75 meters.
The height of the podium is 9.76 meters.
The height of the trilithon is 4.88 meters.
Therefore, the elevation at the base of the trilithon is:
1,145.75 – (9.756+ 4.88) = 1,131.11 meters (equivalent to 3,711 feet)
To find the difference in elevation between the ground at the quarry and at the base of the trilithon, we subtract the two elevations:
1,135.38 – 1,131.11 = 4.27 meters (equivalent to 14 feet)
This slope can then be calculated using trigonometry. The distance between the trilithon and the quarry is 800 meters and the elevated difference is 4.27 meters. If the angle of elevation is Ø, then:
sin Ø = 4.27/800
sin Ø = 0.0053375
and Ø = 0.3°
Having obtained the elevation angle, the second step is to find the parallel component of the gravitational force on the 800 tons block, assuming it is on a frictionless icy incline. The force is calculated from the following formula4:
FÎÎ = m x g x sin Ø
Where
FÎÎ = parallel gravity force on the slope (Newton)
m = mass of the block (800,000 kg)
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/sec2)
Ø = 0.3°, elevation angle (where sine 0.3 = 0.0053375)
By substitution,
FÎÎ = 800,000 x 9.8 x 0.0053375 = 41,846 Newton
If a man can push a 100 kilograms (220 pounds) block on a horizontal surface, he requires 1,000 Newton. This means the 41,846 Newton force is equivalent to 41 men pushing the block downwards on the slope. Although this slope is small, it would have been enough to generate a gravitational force to transport the megaliths from the quarry to the podium.
In addition to the above calculated figures, the time it will take the megalith to complete the 800 meters distance between the quarry and the podium is 175 seconds or approximately 3 minutes and its velocity will reach 9.15 meters/second or 32.94 kilometers/hour (20.47 miles/hour) at the podium.
Most probably these ancient peoples must have built a descending ramp from the quarry to the podium and waited for the ground to freeze in winter. Each megalith would then have been allowed to slide on a sledge descending freely down over the icy ramp. There was no need to pull or push the blocks. On the contrary they had to hold the blocks, by rope or wooden wedges, in order to reduce their descending speed. A similar method to what I am proposing was performed about 250 years ago. The “Thunder Stone” is the world’s largest boulder ever to be moved only by human manpower.5 It was discovered in Finland around 1768 and weighed 1,500 tons (another reference gives it at 1,250 tons). It was moved about 6 kilometers (3.73 miles) on slippery icy ground in winter and then by a barrage to St. Petersburg, in Russia, to serve as a pedestal for the Bronze Horseman, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great. Only 400 men were needed to move the boulder on a horizontal icy ground. In the case of Baalbek’s trilithons, the number of men needed to hold the descending megaliths from the quarry to the podium is definitely much less.
Their third step was to position the blocks on the podium. There was no lifting involved. The descending ramp ended at the elevation of the trilithon. So, they had only to maneuver the megaliths into their present place.
Unfortunately, they were unable to complete their temple. After moving only three megaliths the universal cataclysm destroyed them.
THE UNIVERSAL CATCLYSM
How likely it is that such a cataclysm did happen on earth around 9,000 BCE? Below is a list of references supporting this hypothesis:
1. “In 1975, C. Mililani, of the University of Miami, analyzed the fossil remnants of microscopic organisms under the sediments of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. From his studies, he concluded that 11,000 years ago [9,000 BCE] the Gulf of Mexico contained water that was much less salty than it is today. He suggested that the ice sheet has undergone sudden melting and that a vast flood of water had entered the Gulf of Mexico and raised the sea level markedly”.6
2. Professor J. Shaw, of Queen’s University, Canada, estimated that 82,000 cubic kilometers of water may have poured out from the ice to form the Drumlin Field in Saskatchewan, Canada. The largest river in the world, the Amazon, takes 10 years to discharge the same amount of water into the Atlantic Ocean. The estimated date for this flood is between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE.7
3. The Columbia Basin, in USA, was probably the scene of the greatest stream of water for which there is geological evidence. One reference dates the flood to between 13,000 and 10,000 BCE, another dates it to between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE. Water spread from the Spokane valley over to the Columbian Basin that has a size larger than France, Switzerland, and Belgium put together. The maximum flow rate of the water is estimated at 62 cubic kilometers per hour, a rate that is 15 times the combined flow rate of all the rivers of the world.8
4. A wall of water, 500 meters high, surged down the Chua River Valley from the Altai Mountains in Siberia at 144 km per hour. The estimated date of this flood is between 12,000 and 10,000 BCE.9
5. In 10,000 BCE, the size of the Nile River was 1,000 folds more than at the present time.10
6. Between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE, the Gulf Stream stopped its flow in the Atlantic Ocean abruptly. As a result, Britain and Europe froze for 1,300 years and icebergs appeared as far as Portugal.11
7. About 9,000 BCE, there were severe changes in the large mammal population in many parts of the world. In North America, 8 large mammal species became extinct including mastodons and mammoth.12
8. In Alaska, millions of frozen animals and trees were found mingled together in what could only be attributed to a terrible catastrophe. Millions of animals, such as mammoth, mastodon, and bison were found ‘torn limb from limb’. Trees were uprooted and thrown with animals in a haphazard fashion. Frank Hibbing, a professor of archaeology, visited Alaska in 1941. He wrote: “In many places the Alaskan muck blanket is packed with animal bones and debris in trainload lots… Within this mass, frozen solid lie the twisted parts of animals and trees intermingled with lenses of ice and layers of peat and mosses. It looks as though in the middle of some cataclysmic catastrophe the whole Alaskan world of living animals and plants was suddenly frozen in mid-motion in grim charade.” The estimated date of the catastrophe is between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE.13
9. Evidence of the worldwide destruction of mammals is found in the Siwalik Hills, foothills of the Himalayas, central Burma, Europe, Asia, and Siberia. The estimated remains of extinct animals along the rivers of northern Siberia are 10 million. N.K. Vereshchagin of the Zoology Institute in Leningrad estimates that the arctic coastal plain between Yana and Koyma alone contains at least half a million tons of mammoth tusks. The estimated date for the disappearance of the mammoth is between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE.14
10. The islands of Leakhov, Stolbovoin, Belkov, and the New Siberean Island are packed with mammoth bones. Some skeletons and carcasses were found complete, but the majority was torn about by a gigantic force. Microscopic studies of the skin revealed red blood corpuscles, a sign of sudden death by suffocation. Also, the explorers of the New Siberian Island found some trees uprooted and others partly up right and buried in the frozen soil. They believe a forest existed on the Island before it was suddenly devastated between 10,000-9,000 BCE.15
11. According to Solon, the Egyptian priest informed him that the continent of Atlantis vanished under the sea around 9,500 BCE.16
12. Spartel Island, an island close to the Strait of Gibraltar, vanished under the sea around 9,000 BCE.17
13. According to geological evidence, a cataclysm occurred on Earth between 10,000-9,000 BCE. It brought about the end of one geological era (Pleistocene) and ushered in a new one (Holocene).18
14. The Sahara Desert in Africa was the home of a flourishing civilization. It had jungles, rivers, and possibly a lake. The change in its appearance was brought about by an acute change in temperature and climatic conditions. It is believed that around 9,000 BCE, a cataclysm occurred on Earth causing the Sahara to convert from an inhabited land into a desert. In 1994, when the space shuttle Endeavour took a radar scan of the Sahara, it revealed an ancient river channel buried under the surface of the desert.19
I hope the data presented in my hypothesis will enthuse researchers, archeologists, and PhD students to conduct further study and research.
REFERENCES
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stone_of_the_pregnant_woman
2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple orhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobekli_Tepe
3. https://www.wildlebanon.org/en/pages/bio/images/mi_2_lg.jpg
4. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclined_plane
5. https://www.ancientpages.com/2018/06/14/the-thunder-stone
6. < http://www.bearfabrique.org/floods/mfloods.html>.
7. Ibid
8. <http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/columbia.htm>.
9. <http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf092g08.htm>.
10. < http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_2_4.htm>.
11. <http://maritimes.buffaloimc.org:8080/news/2004/02/
7311_comment.php>.
12. <http://www.american.edu/TED/mammoth.htm>.
13. <http://www.amendez.com/Noah’s%20Ark%20Articles/
NAS%20worldwide%20Mammal%20Massacre.pdf>.
14. Ibid.
15. <http://www.grahamkendall.net/Unsorted_files-2/A312-frozenMammoths.txt <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mammoths.html>.
<http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF1/122.html>.
16 Luce 1969: 209. Luce, J.V.The End of Atlantis. London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.
17<http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/kuhne>.
< http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3766863.stm>.
18<http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/10th%20millennium%20BC>.
19 <http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/1-97/nile.html>.
BY SUHAIL JALBOUT
Baalbek’s history goes back to the first millennium BCE when the Phoenicians built an alter and a courtyard in the Beqaa Valley dedicated to their god Baal, giving Baalbek its name. This valley lies between the two Lebanese mount ranges and was a strategic trading route. When the Greeks occupied the region in 332 BCE, they enlarged the existing temple and added to it. In 47 BCE the Romans conquered Phoenicia. During their time, the Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant. When Julius Caesar settled in Baalbek in 15 BCE, he used the existing temple as a base upon and around which he started the construction of three temples for each of Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus. Today this temple of Bacchus is considered the grandest and best-preserved of all the Roman temple ruins.
The temple of Jupiter is built on top of a podium which contains three of the largest stones ever hewed by man, known as “Trilithon”. The weight of each trilithon is 800 tons. Their quarry is located 800 meters (2,624.67 feet) southeast of the temple on the slope of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. It seems that not all the stones quarried were used. One such humungous megalith was left above ground at the quarry. Recently, two similar stones were discovered buried underground. I shall detail the weights of these stones below.1
MEGALITHS IN THE QUARRY
1. The first megalith, known as the “Pregnant Woman,” is located above ground. It weighs about 1,000 tons.
2. The second megalith was discovered underground in 1990 and weighs 1,242 tons.
3. The third megalith was also discovered underground in 2014 and weighs 1,650 tons. Its average dimensions are 19.6L x 6W x 5.5H meters (64.30 x 19.69 x 18.04 feet). It is the largest ever man-cut block.
Many questions arise from the discovery of these stones, such as, who quarried the six blocks? Why were only three used in the podium, and how were they transported all the way from the quarry to the temple site? Obviously, one would assume that any one of the three civilizations, the Phoenician, the Greek or the Roman, quarried them. Many believe that it was the Romans who quarried the stones. Personally, I do not agree with this general belief for the following reasons:
1. All the majestic ruins of the Romans do not have massive megaliths—this can also be said about the Phoenicians and the Greeks. The size of the stones they quarried and used in other locations are much smaller than the ones found in Baalbek. For example, only few individual stones used in the ancient Roman Pont du Gard aqueduct in France that supplies 40,000 cubic meters of water per day are 6 tons.
2. It is obvious that the structure of the great megalithic podium has a different pattern of construction to the Roman temple built above it.
3. The podium megalith stones are weathered more than the stones in the temple of Jupiter. This can only mean that the megaliths are older.
4. The many fabulous Roman ruins are evidence to the ancient Roman’s expertise in design, architecture, civil engineering, and planning. So, one wonders as to why would they invest in time, manpower and money to quarry such huge megaliths and not use them. Leaving three megaliths in the quarry (there may be more yet undiscovered) does not reflect the Roman professionalism. This leads me to conclude that they were not the ones who quarried the megaliths. They may not even have known of their existence.
AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
If the Romans did not quarry the megaliths, who did?
There is evidence that the Beqaa Valley was inhabited by an ancient civilization as early as 9,000 BCE. I tend to believe that these people, who existed in the Valley around 10,000 BCE or earlier, quarried the six megalith stones to build a temple on some high ground in the area now known as Baalbek. They may have transported three stones to use in the podium construction and before they had a chance to transport the other three, a universal cataclysm occurred on our planet. As a result, the civilization was wiped out, the temple stood unfinished, and the quarry was covered with debris. The situation remained unchanged until the Phoenicians came to the Valley, discovered the unfinished podium, and decided to build their temple as discussed above.
Is there any evidence for such a civilization to have settled in the Beqaa Valley? To answer this question, we need to investigate the archaeological site Gobekli Tepe.2
In 1996 the world’s oldest temple was discovered in Gobekli Tepe in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey some 500 kilometers (310.69 miles) north of Baalbek. The site is a Tell (hill) 15 meters (49.21 feet) high. It was constructed around 10,000 BCE or earlier. T shaped stone pillars were made in a nearby quarry, transported to the site, and then lifted to their place in the temple. The pillars were arranged to form many circles. Two large pillars were placed in the middle of each circle. The pillars’ heights were up to 6 meters (19.69 feet) and weighted 10-20 tons each. One such pillar still in the quarry weighs 50 tons. As of May 2020, more than 200 pillars in about 20 circles were discovered and they are carved with animal shapes, mystic drawings, and abstract symbols. Researchers found that Gobekli Tepe was built according to a precise architectural plan. If one were to join the centers of three of the circles, the lines would form a nearly perfect equilateral triangle. The details of the structure’s function remain a mystery. The purpose of the site could be a temple for worship, a burial place, or an astronomical observation center. The T shaped stone pillars were also discovered in many nearby places to Gobekli Tepe, such as, in Hamazan Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Tasli Tepe and Harbetsuvan Tepe.
These ancient people, who constructed the circles, must have been hunter gatherers. Most probably they used to follow their game from place to place. Lebanon is the bottle neck for migrating birds between Europe and Africa3. These hunters must have followed the flying route of migratory birds to the Beqaa Valley where they established a settlement. The area is protected by mountains from the east and the west, has rivers, game, fertile land, and even wild wheat.
Large animals were domesticated for plowing and transportation, known as “beasts of burden”, between 4,000 and 3,000 BCE. Hence, it is reasonable to assume that because they had no means of transportation, they developed strong body mussels especially in their legs and arms. This means that their walking endurance and speed is equivalent to present time Olympic athletes. The average speed of a race-walker today is about 12.5 kilometers/hour (7.77 miles/hour). If we assume that their walking speed was 10 kilometers/hour (6,21 miles/hour) and they walk only 10 hours a day, we can then conclude that it will take them about 5 days to cover the 500 kilometers (310.69 miles) distance between Gobekli Tepe and Baalbek. Therefore, the probability that these people reached the Beqaa Valley and settled in it around 10,000 BCE or earlier is extremely high. Having settled in the Valley, they would have wanted to build their circular temple. Hence, it is possible that they were the ones that excavated the quarry with the huge megalithic stones to build a podium upon which they would erect their elevated temple. Most probably the steps that they performed to quarry, transport, and lift the megaliths in place are as follows:
Their first step was to cut the stones from a limestone quarry. Limestone is formed from ocean-dwelling organisms such as: oysters, clams, mussels, and coral. These organisms use calcium carbonate (CaCO3) found in seawater to create their shells and bones (Lebanon was completely submerged under seawater). When they die, the water pressure compacts the sediments thus creating limestone. As a result, limestone is extremely porous making it easy to cut with hand tools. So, most probably their quarrying technique consisted of digging a trench around the block of stone they wished to remove and then cut beneath the stone to free its base.
Their second step was to transport the blocks to the site. The limestone quarry is slightly higher in elevation than the base of the trilithon on which the podium sits by approximately 4.27 meters (14 feet). According to Google Map, the elevation of the ground at the Pregnant Woman’s block in the quarry is 1,135.38 meters (3,725 feet) and the elevation at the top of the podium is 1,145.75 meters (3,759 feet). The height of the trilithon stones is approximately 4.88 meters (16 feet) and the height of the podium is approximately 9.76 meters (32 feet).
This data allows us to calculate the elevation at the base of the trilithon as follows:
The elevation at the top of the podium is 1,145.75 meters.
The height of the podium is 9.76 meters.
The height of the trilithon is 4.88 meters.
Therefore, the elevation at the base of the trilithon is:
1,145.75 – (9.756+ 4.88) = 1,131.11 meters (equivalent to 3,711 feet)
To find the difference in elevation between the ground at the quarry and at the base of the trilithon, we subtract the two elevations:
1,135.38 – 1,131.11 = 4.27 meters (equivalent to 14 feet)
This slope can then be calculated using trigonometry. The distance between the trilithon and the quarry is 800 meters and the elevated difference is 4.27 meters. If the angle of elevation is Ø, then:
sin Ø = 4.27/800
sin Ø = 0.0053375
and Ø = 0.3°
Having obtained the elevation angle, the second step is to find the parallel component of the gravitational force on the 800 tons block, assuming it is on a frictionless icy incline. The force is calculated from the following formula4:
FÎÎ = m x g x sin Ø
Where
FÎÎ = parallel gravity force on the slope (Newton)
m = mass of the block (800,000 kg)
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/sec2)
Ø = 0.3°, elevation angle (where sine 0.3 = 0.0053375)
By substitution,
FÎÎ = 800,000 x 9.8 x 0.0053375 = 41,846 Newton
If a man can push a 100 kilograms (220 pounds) block on a horizontal surface, he requires 1,000 Newton. This means the 41,846 Newton force is equivalent to 41 men pushing the block downwards on the slope. Although this slope is small, it would have been enough to generate a gravitational force to transport the megaliths from the quarry to the podium.
In addition to the above calculated figures, the time it will take the megalith to complete the 800 meters distance between the quarry and the podium is 175 seconds or approximately 3 minutes and its velocity will reach 9.15 meters/second or 32.94 kilometers/hour (20.47 miles/hour) at the podium.
Most probably these ancient peoples must have built a descending ramp from the quarry to the podium and waited for the ground to freeze in winter. Each megalith would then have been allowed to slide on a sledge descending freely down over the icy ramp. There was no need to pull or push the blocks. On the contrary they had to hold the blocks, by rope or wooden wedges, in order to reduce their descending speed. A similar method to what I am proposing was performed about 250 years ago. The “Thunder Stone” is the world’s largest boulder ever to be moved only by human manpower.5 It was discovered in Finland around 1768 and weighed 1,500 tons (another reference gives it at 1,250 tons). It was moved about 6 kilometers (3.73 miles) on slippery icy ground in winter and then by a barrage to St. Petersburg, in Russia, to serve as a pedestal for the Bronze Horseman, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great. Only 400 men were needed to move the boulder on a horizontal icy ground. In the case of Baalbek’s trilithons, the number of men needed to hold the descending megaliths from the quarry to the podium is definitely much less.
Their third step was to position the blocks on the podium. There was no lifting involved. The descending ramp ended at the elevation of the trilithon. So, they had only to maneuver the megaliths into their present place.
Unfortunately, they were unable to complete their temple. After moving only three megaliths the universal cataclysm destroyed them.
THE UNIVERSAL CATCLYSM
How likely it is that such a cataclysm did happen on earth around 9,000 BCE? Below is a list of references supporting this hypothesis:
1. “In 1975, C. Mililani, of the University of Miami, analyzed the fossil remnants of microscopic organisms under the sediments of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. From his studies, he concluded that 11,000 years ago [9,000 BCE] the Gulf of Mexico contained water that was much less salty than it is today. He suggested that the ice sheet has undergone sudden melting and that a vast flood of water had entered the Gulf of Mexico and raised the sea level markedly”.6
2. Professor J. Shaw, of Queen’s University, Canada, estimated that 82,000 cubic kilometers of water may have poured out from the ice to form the Drumlin Field in Saskatchewan, Canada. The largest river in the world, the Amazon, takes 10 years to discharge the same amount of water into the Atlantic Ocean. The estimated date for this flood is between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE.7
3. The Columbia Basin, in USA, was probably the scene of the greatest stream of water for which there is geological evidence. One reference dates the flood to between 13,000 and 10,000 BCE, another dates it to between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE. Water spread from the Spokane valley over to the Columbian Basin that has a size larger than France, Switzerland, and Belgium put together. The maximum flow rate of the water is estimated at 62 cubic kilometers per hour, a rate that is 15 times the combined flow rate of all the rivers of the world.8
4. A wall of water, 500 meters high, surged down the Chua River Valley from the Altai Mountains in Siberia at 144 km per hour. The estimated date of this flood is between 12,000 and 10,000 BCE.9
5. In 10,000 BCE, the size of the Nile River was 1,000 folds more than at the present time.10
6. Between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE, the Gulf Stream stopped its flow in the Atlantic Ocean abruptly. As a result, Britain and Europe froze for 1,300 years and icebergs appeared as far as Portugal.11
7. About 9,000 BCE, there were severe changes in the large mammal population in many parts of the world. In North America, 8 large mammal species became extinct including mastodons and mammoth.12
8. In Alaska, millions of frozen animals and trees were found mingled together in what could only be attributed to a terrible catastrophe. Millions of animals, such as mammoth, mastodon, and bison were found ‘torn limb from limb’. Trees were uprooted and thrown with animals in a haphazard fashion. Frank Hibbing, a professor of archaeology, visited Alaska in 1941. He wrote: “In many places the Alaskan muck blanket is packed with animal bones and debris in trainload lots… Within this mass, frozen solid lie the twisted parts of animals and trees intermingled with lenses of ice and layers of peat and mosses. It looks as though in the middle of some cataclysmic catastrophe the whole Alaskan world of living animals and plants was suddenly frozen in mid-motion in grim charade.” The estimated date of the catastrophe is between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE.13
9. Evidence of the worldwide destruction of mammals is found in the Siwalik Hills, foothills of the Himalayas, central Burma, Europe, Asia, and Siberia. The estimated remains of extinct animals along the rivers of northern Siberia are 10 million. N.K. Vereshchagin of the Zoology Institute in Leningrad estimates that the arctic coastal plain between Yana and Koyma alone contains at least half a million tons of mammoth tusks. The estimated date for the disappearance of the mammoth is between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE.14
10. The islands of Leakhov, Stolbovoin, Belkov, and the New Siberean Island are packed with mammoth bones. Some skeletons and carcasses were found complete, but the majority was torn about by a gigantic force. Microscopic studies of the skin revealed red blood corpuscles, a sign of sudden death by suffocation. Also, the explorers of the New Siberian Island found some trees uprooted and others partly up right and buried in the frozen soil. They believe a forest existed on the Island before it was suddenly devastated between 10,000-9,000 BCE.15
11. According to Solon, the Egyptian priest informed him that the continent of Atlantis vanished under the sea around 9,500 BCE.16
12. Spartel Island, an island close to the Strait of Gibraltar, vanished under the sea around 9,000 BCE.17
13. According to geological evidence, a cataclysm occurred on Earth between 10,000-9,000 BCE. It brought about the end of one geological era (Pleistocene) and ushered in a new one (Holocene).18
14. The Sahara Desert in Africa was the home of a flourishing civilization. It had jungles, rivers, and possibly a lake. The change in its appearance was brought about by an acute change in temperature and climatic conditions. It is believed that around 9,000 BCE, a cataclysm occurred on Earth causing the Sahara to convert from an inhabited land into a desert. In 1994, when the space shuttle Endeavour took a radar scan of the Sahara, it revealed an ancient river channel buried under the surface of the desert.19
I hope the data presented in my hypothesis will enthuse researchers, archeologists, and PhD students to conduct further study and research.
REFERENCES
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stone_of_the_pregnant_woman
2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple orhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobekli_Tepe
3. https://www.wildlebanon.org/en/pages/bio/images/mi_2_lg.jpg
4. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclined_plane
5. https://www.ancientpages.com/2018/06/14/the-thunder-stone
6. < http://www.bearfabrique.org/floods/mfloods.html>.
7. Ibid
8. <http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/columbia.htm>.
9. <http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf092g08.htm>.
10. < http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_2_4.htm>.
11. <http://maritimes.buffaloimc.org:8080/news/2004/02/
7311_comment.php>.
12. <http://www.american.edu/TED/mammoth.htm>.
13. <http://www.amendez.com/Noah’s%20Ark%20Articles/
NAS%20worldwide%20Mammal%20Massacre.pdf>.
14. Ibid.
15. <http://www.grahamkendall.net/Unsorted_files-2/A312-frozenMammoths.txt <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mammoths.html>.
<http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF1/122.html>.
16 Luce 1969: 209. Luce, J.V.The End of Atlantis. London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.
17<http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/kuhne>.
< http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3766863.stm>.
18<http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/10th%20millennium%20BC>.
19 <http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/1-97/nile.html>.
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