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Crane capacity check: even modern crawler cranes topping 20,000 metric tons exist today, but nothing remotely close in 1405. If the official figures are accurate, moving a single 13.5M lb block with period technology isn't just impressive, it's borderline unexplainable.
The Yangshan Quarry has to be one of the most anomalous sites on Earth. I do not believe the official history of it at all. Its unfinished monoliths are said to weigh 16,250, 8,799, and 6,118 metric tons. The largest alone comes in at nearly 36 million pounds. Supposedly, the three monoliths were commissioned by the Yongle Emperor in 1405 as part of an enormous stele. But even the lightest one weighs roughly 13.5 million pounds. For reference, that is the only one of the three lighter than a fully loaded Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. And, of course, nubs galore. 👀 And yet, even today, the largest heavy-lift cranes are only in the range of about 20,000 metric tons. So how, exactly, were the Chinese supposedly planning to lift, transport, and erect these unparalleled monoliths? Surely they did not get that far into the work before realizing the sheer scale of what they had attempted. The stele base alone is said to be 43 feet thick, 52 feet tall, and 16,250 metric tons — roughly 35.8 million pounds. The scale of these monoliths is simply unmatched anywhere on the planet. More research needs to be done on Yangshan Quarry, because I am not buying the official story at all. Allegedly, the project was abandoned only after the workers had nearly finished freeing the stones from the mountain, at which point they realized the monoliths were impossible to move. “Allegedly.” Then, in 1413, a different stele was erected instead — but the two projects are not even remotely on the same scale.