I'm going to be looking into the specific claims regarding the pyramids in a future article, and I'll make sure to talk about the alignment and all that. I certainly think it's possible that the ancient Egyptians were using some sophisticated methods that haven't been widely acknowledged.

As for the benefits of using stone, I agree that this is the reason that the pyramids have stood the test of time. That's a nice feature when you're building a tomb to mark somebody's eternal afterlife. But it doesn't seem to me like it would be on the list of construction requirements for visiting aliens.

Thanks for the quick response! The alien intervention theory is interesting and by no means definitive. I was pointing out that ancient civilizations may have had more advanced technology than we give them credit for, not necessarily brought to them by aliens.

I'm not sure if they spoke about this on ancient aliens, but another fascinating thing about the pyramids was the location chosen. It sits on the longest land meridian and longest land parallel effectively dividing the all land on earth into quarters. It's orientation is near perfectly aligned with true north. It's not difficult to obtain a simple north south east west by observing the sun but it is difficult to be within 3 minutes of a degree of true north. Even a modern gyro compass has an error correction of around 1-2 degrees.

There is still speculation as to how this was done but most likely some form of celestial navigation was employed, and coming from someone who has navigated using celestial bodies - it's not easy. I looked up modern man's attempt at aligning a building to true north, the Paris observatory came close, 6 minutes off - twice the error of the Egyptians. From what I have gathered, it is the most accurately aligned structure in the world. If they were able to do this they were much more sophisticated than I think the general consensus gives them credit for. Like I said whether they were aided by more intelligent beings or they were well ahead of their time is a debatable. Another random fact about the Great Pyramid: "The mortar used is of an unknown origin. It has been analyzed and its chemical composition is known but it can't be reproduced. It is stronger than the stone and still holding up today."
There are some other crazy facts at this site http://www.scribd.com/doc/27087708/Amazing-Modern-Pyramids-of-the-World-by-James-Tyberonn

The use of stone is primitive but will stand the test of time better than anything we use today. Concrete and steel buildings without proper upkeep will deteriorate in a relatively short period of time. I'll see what i can find on those ancient stone cutting techniques and check back to see what you find as well.

Thanks for writing James. I'll be looking more into ancient methods of stone cutting in a future article. One thing that I think should be mentioned right away, though, is that if the argument is that it must be aliens because you can't see how it could have been done otherwise... well, that scenario is even more problematic than the problem it portends to solve.

Why would technologically advanced aliens come down and engage in large scale building projects with ancient humans using a primitive and awkward building material like stone?

The reason ancient civilizations built out of stone is because that was the best material they had available. But if you want to make anything with it on the scale of the pyramids or any other large buildings, you run into it's limitations.

In order to support any height, the base has to be extremely wide and thick, which is the reason that the pyramids are shaped the way they are. It's not an effective use of space, and it's a very wasteful use of building materials.

The theory that this was an alien intervention just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I know a lot of the show draws some wild conclusions but one part that was genuinely interesting and from my point of view pretty hard to explain - the site in Bolivia that showed very large stones cut with ridiculous precision. And the walls in the great pyramid that are cut within thousandths of an inch level and squared off. Diamond cutting blades are currently used for granite work due to high amounts of quartz, it would seem likely that type of high quality work was not done with just brass tools.