Caltech Team Raising Obelisk With Kite On June 23, 2001, Mory Gharib, a Caltech aeronautics professor, (3132.6-kilogram), 15 foot(3.0-meter)
obelisk into vertical position in the desert near Palmdale by using only a kite, a pulley system, and a support
frame.
Photograph by Robert Tindol
PALMDALE, California—When people think abou the building of the Egyptian pyramids, they probably have a mental image of thousands of slaves laboriously rolling massive stone
blocks into place with logs and levers. But one Caltech
aeronautics professor has set out to demonstrate that
the task could have been accomplished by several people
using a kite to move the heavy stones.
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