The pyramids of Egypt were built more than three thousand years ago, and no one knows how. 埃及的金字塔建造于 3,000 多年前，但没有人知道金字塔究竟是如何建成的。 The conventional picture is that tens of thousands of slaves dragged stones on sledges. 传统的观念认为金字塔是由成千上万的奴隶通用拽拉石头建造的。 But there is no evidence to back this up. 但是并没有证据来支持这一观点。 Now a Californian software consultant called Maureen Clemmons has suggested that kites might have been involved. 如今，加利福尼亚的一名软件顾问 Maureen Clemmons 指出建造金字塔时可能用到了风筝。 While perusing a book on the monuments of Egypt, she noticed a hieroglyph that showed a row of men standing in odd postures. 通过研究一本有关埃及金字塔历史遗迹的书，Clemmons 发现了一排古怪站姿男子的象形符号。 They were holding what looked like ropes that led, via some kind of mechanical system, to a giant bird in the sky. 他们手握着类似绳子的东西，通过某个机械装置把一个巨大的鸟升至了空中。 She wondered if perhaps the bird was actually a giant kite, and the men were using it to lift a heavy object. Clemmons 猜想这只巨大的鸟实际就是一个巨大的风筝，人们正是用它来提起重物的。

Intrigued, Clemmons contacted Morteza Gharib, aeronautics professor at the California Institute of Technology. 出于好奇，Clemmons 与加州技术研究院（CIT）的航空学教授 Morteza Gharib 取得了联系。 He was fascinated by the idea. Gharib 也被 Clemmons 的这一想法深深地吸引住了。 Coming from Iran, I have a keen interest in Middle Eastern science, he says. 他说:“由于我来自伊朗，所以对中东的科学有着浓厚的兴趣。 He too was puzzled by the picture that had sparked Clemmonss interest. ”对于激起 Clemmons 兴趣的图像，Gharib 也同样感到迷惑不解。 The object in the sky apparently had wings far too short and wide for a bird. 图像中出现的物体的翅膀对于一个鸟来说明显太短太宽。 The possibility certainly existed that it was a kite, he says. 他说：“这无疑就是一个风筝。 And since he needed a summer project for his student Emilio Graff, investigating the possibility of using kites as heavy lifters seemed like a good idea. ”Gharib 正在为他的学生 Emilio Graff 准备一个夏季研究课题，所以将研究风筝作为重物提升装置的可能性似乎就是一个好的课题。

Gharib and Graff set themselves the task of raising a 4.5-metre stone column from horizontal to vertical, using no source of energy except the wind. Gharib 与 Graff 制定了一项任务，那就是仅利用风能就将一个 4.5 米长的石柱提至与地面垂直。 Their initial calculations and scale-model wind-tunnel experiments convinced them they wouldn’t need a strong wind to lift the 33.5-tonne column. 他们最初的测算及标度模型试验使他们确信，并不需要强风来提起一块重达 33.5 吨的石柱。 Even a modest force, if sustained over a long time, would do. 即使是可以长时间持续的中风也可以将巨石提起。 The key was to use a pulley system that would magnify the applied force. 这样做的关键是要使用一个滑轮装置来加大所施加的作用力。 So they rigged up a tent-shaped scaffold directly above the tip of the horizontal column, with pulleys suspended from the scaffolds apex. 所以他们在水平的石柱正上方安装了一个帐篷状的台架，并在台架顶部安装了滑轮。 The idea was that as one end of the column rose, the base would roll across the ground on a trolley. 这样做的目的是当石柱的一端被提起时，石柱的另一端也会相应地被提起。 Earlier this year, the team put Clemmonss unlikely theory to the test, using a 40-square-metre rectangular nylon sail. 年初，工作组对 Clemmons 的不太可能的理论进行了试验，用一个 40 平方米的尼龙翼板做成风筝。 The kite lifted the column clean off the ground. 风筝将石柱从地面上提起。 We were absolutely stunned, Gharib says. Gharib 说 :“我们彻底被震惊了。 The instant the sail opened into the wind, a huge force was generated and the column was raised to the vertical in a mere 40 seconds. ”当翼板迎风挣开的那一刻产生了一股巨大的力，石柱就在仅仅 40 秒的时间内立了起来。

The wind was blowing at a gentle 16 to 20 kilometres an hour, little more than half what they thought would be needed. 当时的风速仅为 16—20 千米 / 时，还不到他们之前预想的所需风速的一半。 What they had failed to reckon with was what happened when the kite was opened. 然而他们所不了解的是在风筝打开的那一刻到底发生了什么。 There was a huge initial force- five times larger than the steady state force, Gharib says. Gharib 认为存在了一股比平时要强五倍的力， This jerk meant that kites could lift huge weights, Gharib realised. 正是这股力使风筝可以将重物提起。 Even a 300-tonne column could have been lifted to the vertical with 40 or so men and four or five sails. 即便是重达 300 吨的石柱也可以用大约 40 个左右的男工或 4—5 个风筝提起。 So Clemmons was right: the pyramid builders could have used kites to lift massive stones into place. Clemmons 的推测可能是正确的，那就是金字塔的建造者可能使用了风筝来把巨石放到适当的位置。 Whether they actually did is another matter, Gharib says. “但这也仅仅是推测，他们是否真的使用了这种方法却是另一回事。 There are no pictures showing the construction of the pyramids, so there is no way to tell what really happened. ”由于没有任何的图片信息来表明金字塔的构造，因此根本没有办法来解释当时究竟发生了什么。 The evidence for using kites to move large stones is no better or worse than the evidence for the brute force method, Gharib says. Gharib 说：“但用风筝来移动巨石至少要比利用人力的方法更好一些。

Indeed, the experiments have left many specialists unconvinced. 事实上，这些试验遭到了许多专家的质疑。 The evidence for kite-lifting is non-existent, says Willeke Wendrich, an associate professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Los Angeles. 洛杉矶加利福尼亚大学的埃及学副教授认为用风筝来提起巨石的证据根本就不存在。

Others feel there is more of a case for the theory. 然而，有些人却认为不止一个例子可以支撑这一理论。 Harnessing the wind would not have been a problem for accomplished sailors like the Egyptians. 对于像埃及人一样能干的水手来说，利用风来航行根本就不成问题。 And they are known to have used wooden pulleys, which could have been made strong enough to bear the weight of massive blocks of stone. 况且埃及人还懂得使用足以承受巨石重量的木质滑轮。 In addition, there is some physical evidence that the ancient Egyptians were interested in flight. 此外，古埃及人对飞行很感兴趣是有实质证据的。 A wooden artefact found on the step pyramid at Saqqara looks uncannily like a modern glider. 在埃及塞拉加村的一个阶梯形金字塔上发现的一个手工木制品也与现代的滑翔机非常相似。 Although it dates from several hundred years after the building of the pyramids, its sophistication suggests that the Egyptians might have been developing ideas of flight for a long time. 虽然这个木制品是在金字塔建造之后的几百年被制造的，但其复杂的构造表明了埃及人很可能在很久以前就形成了有关飞行的概念。 And other ancient civilisations certainly knew about kites; as early as 1250 BC, the Chinese were using them to deliver messages and dump flaming debris on their foes. 很显然，其他古代文明社会也使用了风筝，例如，早在公元前 1250 年，中国人就利用风筝来传递信息，并通过抛出燃烧着的瓦砾来打击敌人。

The experiments might even have practical uses nowadays. 现如今这些试验可能有了更实际的用处。 There are plenty of places around the globe where people have no access to heavy machinery, but do know how to deal with wind, sailing and basic mechanical principles. 世界上许多地方的人都没有大型的重物起重装置，但他们却懂得如何使用风能、如何航行，他们也懂得一些最基本的机械定律。 Gharib has already been contacted by a civil engineer in Nicaragua, who wants to put up buildings with adobe roofs supported by concrete arches on a site that heavy equipment cant reach. 尼加拉瓜的土木工程师与 Gharib 取得了联系，他想建造带有黏土屋顶的楼，这个屋顶需要由混凝土拱形结构来支撑，而屋顶所在的位置是重型机器所不能达到的。 His idea is to build the arches horizontally, then lift them into place using kites. 他的想法是在水平的位置建造这个拱形，然后利用风筝将其提升到相应的位置。 We've given him some design hints, says Gharib. Gharib 说：“我们已经给他提供了一些设计上的建议， We're just waiting for him to report back. 现在正等他的答复。 So whether they were actually used to build the pyramids or not, it seems that kites may make sensible construction tools in the 21 st century AD. ”无论风筝是否在建造金字塔的过程中被使用，但在公元 21 世纪风筝似乎已经被用来制造合理的建筑工具了。