Ottawa's Nick Raina may have solved one of the world's greatest mysteries. Brushing aside hundreds of years worth of theories by historians and archeologists, the 69-year-old man claims he can build a Great Pyramid just like the one constructed by the Egyptians, in approximately 2450 BC, using simple hand tools and minimal force. Mr. Raina is not an engineer or a scientist. He describes himself simply as "an eccentric old man that moves big rocks." He will give a full-scale demonstration in Perth today at the Stewart Park Festival.

Whereas it has traditionally been assumed that the Egyptians built ramps and laboriously dragged more than two million limestone slabs, each weighing approximately 2.3 tonnes, to the top of the Great Pyramid, Mr. Raina said the real answer to the mystery can be found in a bizarre-looking wooden contraption that sits on his driveway. "Modern man's concept of how ancient man moved rock is balderdash," he said, standing outside his Onondaga Crescent house in Nepean, surrounded by logs, rocks and rope. "I've reduced moving rocks to the pyramid to a mom-and-pop operation." In order to move large rocks intelligently, he said, you have to use the weight of the rock. Friction must be eliminated and momentum, once it starts, has to be maintained. Mr. Raina believes that the rectangular rocks were moved from the quarry to the site of the pyramid by fastening wooden planks to the four sides of the slabs (almost like the bottom of a rocking chair) and then pulling it along with a rope so it rolls.

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The demonstration should be good.

But it's a shame that most egyptologists will shrug it off at first, cos they did not think of it.

Egyptologist tend to be amongst the most blinkered in my opinion, it's fair enough being sceptical, but you must also balance this with being open minded.

pretty cool, but i dont understand his machine?!?

I don't know but I'd like to see the presentation.

thats crazy, i cant beleive no one thought of that before, i wishi could see the demonstration

Ah what an interresting idea - I don't think I quite get the concept of what it looks like or how it happens but it would be cool to see!

Well... oddly enough i happen to live in the same town as this fella.....

I haven't read anything to date on it. I work all day and doubt i'll be able to check it out but i will definately make an effort to go see this performance if not too late.

what i got out of the reading is that the rock cube would be inside a type of wheel made from warped wood forming a circle enabaling it to roll...or at least something like that

Hey Mistify, I spent a year working on the Hill. Ottawa is a nice place. Ever make it out to any Renegades games?

As for the invention, it is simply curved wood attached to the rock that effectively gives it a spherical shell. Interesting concept, but if that was the case, why are the Nubian pyramids built in such a labour intense manner? They saw how the Egyptians did it, why would they have found a more difficult manner to do it?

Hey Moose,

Ottawa is lovely i agree, a great place to live! And yes i've seen a few of the shameful renegades games this year.. I'm waiting for a little more improvement on their part

I think his idea sound simple enough, but what i want to know is... why haven't the egyptians ever written anything about the way of the pyramids? They've written about everything else in their culture... <<

Mystify,

The Rens are doing much better this year, releasing Crowley was a good idea. I'm not sure if Joseph is the future but he is getting to done better than anyone else that they have had. And hey, you get to play my lousy Bomber soon, so things might perk up. If you are ever through Winnipeg, I'll have to treat you to a beer or something.

As to why the Egyptians never left any record, who knows. Quite possibly, they thought that it was such common knowledge that it didn't need to be written down. Afterall, we all know how to wipe our bum and so there is very little documentation on such a topic.

Pyramids were already there? So they didn't write how they got built, they just modified them...

Giants built them.

I may be safely ignored...

Damn! The article is no longer there

It sounds like a great idea, although i wonder whether the timber could both be bent and hold the weight of the rock. I mean, those slabs are really heavy!

Of course, i can do better than that Why not carve the stone round, roll the stone to the site, then carve it into the desired shape? f****, i'm a genius

Of course, there'd be tons of offcuts, unless they went to the trouble of removing them

Hey, if they could find evidence of offcuts, i would truly be a genius