(1:07:39 is what I’m referencing)
On the above posted video, Alex Stein discusses a commonly misunderstood idea that I’ve heard with increasing frequency: “We do not know how the Egyptians built the pyramids, and therefore we could not build pyramids”. The basic premise is that the Egyptians had some form of ancient, but futuristic technology that they used to move the massive stones they used to build the pyramids with, and we couldn’t do that today.
I think this general line of thinking stems from a general misunderstanding of what is actually being stated. Yes, we “don’t know how the Egyptians built the pyramids”, because they did not directly write down explicitly how they actually went about building the pyramids. We’re not sure why, as there are innocuous texts for all sorts of mundane tasks, such as weaving, pottery making, etc. However, it is quite a leap to jump from “They didn’t write it down” to “They must have used advanced/alien technology to move the stones with some sci fi tool!”
We have a fairly decent idea of how the ancient Egyptians probably built the pyramids. The Pyramids of Giza were not the only pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians, nor was the Pyramid of Djoser even the first pyramid. In the link provided, there are a slew of pyramids that are far less extravagant, and in various states of deprecation. The referenced pyramids of Giza and Djoser happen to be the most extravagant pyramids, so they get all of the press and attention. However, there are plenty of other pyramids that are basically just mounds of dirt with some stone bricks laid on top of it.
Again, the issue isn’t that we don’t know how the pyramids were built, and therefore we couldn’t build the pyramids ourselves. Anyone could dig a giant mound of dirt up, lay some bricks down, and call it a day. The issue is that we don’t know which engineering technique was used to build the really big pyramids. Some think they used logs, and rolled the stones up slopes along the sides of the pyramids. Others believe they dug a massive mound, and build the pyramid from the top down.
It’s rather arrogant of us to assume that in the modern age, with mechanized machinery and power tools, that ancient people in the past couldn’t figure out how to build massive structures without the use of science fiction level technology. People today are more or less them same as people back then were, and people are exceedingly good at solving problems.