Rocket Ships And Ziggurats [FICTOID]

“Let me plant a thought in your head:  Rocket ships and ziggurats.”

“That’s two thoughts but okay, it’s planted.  So what?”

“Don’t you think they go together?”

“No.”

“How can you say that?  Ziggurats make perfect launch pads for rocket ships.”

“One:  No, they don’t.  They’re made of sun-baked clay bricks.  The added weight of a crew carrying rocket -- to say nothing of the heat and thrust damage at launch -- would shatter and collapse the ziggurat.  Do you see any collapsed ziggurats other than those that fell to erosion?”

“How can you prove they didn’t collapse from rocket launches?”

“By the lack of blast and heat damage.  Two:  Ther ancient Babylonians didn’t have the necessary knowledge or technology to build crew carrying rockets.”

“Ah!  So you concede they built rockets!”

“I concede no such thing.  The ancient Greeks had a jet-propelled toy bird that hung from a string.  Hold a flame under it to boil the water inside and it produced steam to propel it, but they never developed it past a toy.

“The Chinese invented gunpower as an incendiary weapon and only belatedly discovered its explosive and propulsive properties.

“It isn’t until the 1920s when humanity finally got all the basics of rocketry down pat that the thought of sending something into space even became a remote possibility so don’t me that damn social media conspiracy crap about Babylonians sending rockets into space.”

“They could have…”

“They didn’t!  Where among all the cuneiform tablets we’ve located is there any mention of a Babylonian space program?  Where are the remains of factories used to build the damn things?  Where are any wrecked or junked rockets for us to examine?”

“I have an answer if you care to hear it.”

“Please.  I’m dying to hear your excuse.”

“They launched them all into space, that is all I have to say.”

© Buzz Dixon