(28) Before entering into the question of the transport of obelisks, it may be as well to give extracts from ancient writers. They throw very little light on the problem, the Roman and Greek writers only giving what seems to be third-rate hearsay information, while the Ancient Egyptians usually confine themselves to statistics as to the numbers of men employed.

King Menthu?otpe IV sent an expedition of 10,000 men to the Wady HammÂmÂt quarries to bring in a sarcophagus, and records that it took 3,000 sailors from the Delta nomes to remove the lid, measuring 4 by 8 by 2 cubits, from there to Egypt. This seems to shew that a pressed gang of the amphibious Delta inhabitants from the lakes had been taken out to the quarries. At any rate we are told that “not a man perished, not a troop was missing, not an ass died and not a workman was enfeebled” (BREASTED, Ancient Records, I, 215). This was more fortunate than the expedition of Ramesses IV quoted below, but it gives no details of the various kinds of artisan employed.

In the reign of Amenem?Êt III, an official, also called Amenem?Êt, was sent to the same place to obtain 10 statues of 5 cubits high. The personnel consisted of (BREASTED, A. R., I, 313):

Under Ramesses IV, a large expedition was again sent to the Wady HammÂmÂt for monumental stone. It numbered 8362 persons. Breasted sums up the personnel as follows (A. R., III, 224):

From this it will be seen that larger parties than our estimate of 5725 were sent much further afield than AswÂn, which itself was a garrison town. It seems to have been the custom to use troops on this unpleasant kind of fatigue, if captives or pressed gangs were not available in sufficient numbers.

The only record that we have on the transport of an obelisk is a passage from the Papyrus Anastasi I (GARDINER, Egyptian Hieratic Texts, Part I, p. 17*, § XIII), in which one scribe called ?ori writes to another called Amenemope, accusing him of being unable to calculate the number of men required to transport an obelisk of given dimensions. He says: “An obelisk has been newly made ..... of 110 cubits in length of shaft; its pedestal 10 cubits square, the block of its base making 7 cubits in every direction; it goes in a slope (?) towards the summit (?), one cubit one finger, its pyramidion one cubit in height its point measuring two fingers. Add them together (?) so as to make them into a list (??), so that thou mayest appoint every man needed to drag it...”

Here the obelisk is very long and thin and has an impossibly short pyramidion, but in any case such a problem can only be solved by one who has had previous experience, not only of the friction to be overcome in the transport of large blocks, but of the nature of the ground to be traversed. The figures given are only sufficient to determine the weight of the obelisk.

(29) The largest transportation on land, of which a scene has come down to us, is that of the winged bull of Nineveh. This is published in LAYARD, Discoveries, pls. X–XVII. The bull is drawn by men pulling on four cables, and a line of men keeps on placing rollers under the front of the sleds on which the colossus is attached. Behind it men assist the overcoming of the initial friction with large handspikes.

Another scene, this time from Egypt, is the transport of a statue of one called D?ut?otpe (LEPSIUS, DenkmÄler, II, 134, and BREASTED, Ancient Records, I, 309–312). The method used here is that of a sled, whose runners are wetted or greased, pulled on sleepers. Though the statue was only about 22 feet high and weighed some 60 tons, it appears to have required 172 men to move it; we can therefore safely rule this method out as applying to a 1170-ton obelisk. If a sled was used, it must have been in conjunction with rollers.

Greek and Roman writers throw very little light on ancient methods of transportation. Herodotus, in book II, chap. 175, remarks: But of these, that which I not the least, rather the most admire, is this: he (King Amasis) brought a building of one stone from the city of Elephantine, and 2000 men, who were appointed to convey it, were occupied three whole years in its transport, and these men were all pilots. The length of this chamber, outside, is 21 cubits, the breadth 14, and the height 8. This is the measure of the outside of the one-stoned chamber. But inside the length is 18 cubits 20 digits, and the width 12 cubits, and the height 5 cubits.

Gorringe, in his Egyptian Obelisks, gives an almost complete collection of the accounts of transportation, erection, etc., by ancient authors. Many of these accounts are so vague or improbable as to be hardly worth including here. {31}

(30) Having discussed the possible methods of removing the obelisk from the quarry, the next thing to be considered is whether it was rolled over and over down to the river bank, or whether it was pulled along on rollers.

The first way is not without its advantages, as it is almost fool-proof. The width of the embankment or track, of which there are many about the quarries, need only be about one-third the length of the obelisk, and the tendency for the obelisk to roll in a circle would be to a large extent neutralized if it were of soft sand, where the heavy end would sink in to a greater depth than the point end. However, the turning would be a most laborious process, and the general progress very slow and requiring an enormous number of men. It is obvious that the obelisk was brought into the temple precincts lengthways, so if it was moved a little that way it is quite possible that the greater part of its journey on land was so made.

(31) Plate VII gives a rough plan of the quarry in which the obelisk lies. It is accurate as regards the obelisk, embankments and the rock faces A, B and C. It will be seen that the rock at B, which is also shewn on plate III, no. 2, has been partly cut away, presumably to let the point of the obelisk pass out of the quarry. It may be only a coincidence, but, strangely enough, the distance AC (from both ends of which rock has been removed), is almost exactly the length of the obelisk. My opinion is that the obelisk was only rolled sideways for a very short distance until it was very little higher than the level of the floor of the valley, and was then put on to rollers running on heavy baulks of limber, the process being:

• (1) Track prepared before the obelisk has reached its lowest level.
• (2) Track and rollers covered over with soft sand, the line of the track being marked by sighting poles.
• (3) Obelisk rolled down on to the sand above the track.
• (4) Sand dug away from under the obelisk. In the end, I think that this way would be quicker than levering the obelisk up by horizontal levers—but that is still a possibility.

It has been doubted that the Egyptians knew rollers, but without them I do not see how a thousand-ton block can be transported. After all, the Assyrians were familiar with them in the 8^th century B.C. at latest (section 29), and there was extensive communication between them and the Egyptians for centuries before that. Are we to assume that the discovery was made between the probable 15^th century of our obelisk and the 8^th?

The Luxor obelisk, in the course of its removal to Paris, was dragged along a specially prepared wooden track after it had been mounted on a wooden ‘cradle’, the track being well greased. The pulling was done by capstans and blocks and tackles. It was found that a pull of 94 tons was required to pull the obelisk up the slope leading to the pedestal. This was with a 227-ton obelisk. Since friction with average-sized blocks is about proportional to the weight, to pull the AswÂn obelisk would need (1168/227 ×94) =485 tons, which would require about 11,000 men. I cannot believe that all these could have been arranged so as to pull the obelisk up an embankment (see sections 35 and 37). {32}

The great advantage of rollers is that comparatively little space is required and a minimum of pulling force; its disadvantages are that there is always a risk of the rollers becoming jammed, and that, even on a slight incline, the obelisk is liable to get out of control.

As to the sizes of the rollers required, I can only say that the top of the fallen obelisk of ?atshepsÔwet now rests on 20cent. diameter pitch-pine rollers, spaced one metre apart, and there is not the faintest sign of crushing. The worst stress with the AswÂn obelisk might rise to 11 times as much as the example cited.

(32) The obelisks of ?atshepsÔwet were mounted on sleds, perhaps to make an easier running surface; it would also serve to damp any shocks and to distribute the upward pressure of the rollers evenly along the under surface of the obelisk. The method of attachment is shewn in figure 7 (from NAVILLE, The Temple of Deir el Bahari, Part VI, pl. CLIV), but is rather vague. I cannot say whether the AswÂn obelisk was to have been mounted in this way or not; if it were, then it would be put on its sledge at the same time as it was put on the rollers, as explained in the last section.

(33) Once on its rollers, there is a fairly level and straight track from the mouth of the valley running along the course of the old barrage railway (pl. VII), joining the two large embankments D?E and F?G, which feed the quarries on the south of the obelisk and on the high desert respectively. Plate IV, no. 4, gives a view of the embankment F?G looking down to AswÂn town. It joins the course the obelisk would take at A. The modern town north of the station prevents us determining exactly where these embankments gave on to the river bank.

(34) On the details of the boats, on which we know the obelisks were transported, I can offer no opinion of value, as I am not familiar with boat design, particularly that of the “queen-truss” type which seems to have been so popular with the Egyptians. I will content myself, therefore, with citing certain accounts and giving sundry references, which may prove of use to those who intend to pursue this matter further.

The only scene we have of water transportation is that of the temple of DÊr el-Ba?ari, published by Naville and entitled The Temple of Deir el Bahari, Part VI, plate CLIV, where there is a picture of the boat containing two 30-metre obelisks placed butt to butt[12]. The boat used here must have been at least 82 metres long. He mentions also the boat used to carry the two obelisks of TuthmÔsis I, which measured 63 metres by 21 wide (BREASTED, Ancient Records, II, 105). Both this boat and that of ?atshepsÔwet are spoken of as the “August” boat. {33}

Another great boat was made by one Uni, in the VI^th dynasty, for the transport of stone from AswÂn. This measured 60 cubits (31 metres) in length by 30 in width, and took only 17 days to construct (Ancient Records, I, 322).

The construction of ancient boats is discussed in Ancient Egypt, 1920, Part 1 ff. by Mr. Somers Clarke, and a detailed description of ?atshepsÔwet’s boat is given by Naville, in his work cited above, on pages 2 to 4. Boats are also described in WILKINSON, Manners and Customs, vol. I, p. 276, and vol. II, pp. 211, 212.

To me, the only practicable way of loading such an obelisk on to a boat, would be by building an embankment round and over the boat, pulling the obelisk into a position above it, and then digging the boat and channel clear again. We can hardly believe that the obelisk was hauled in over the gunwale! In moving the Luxor obelisk to Paris, and the Alexandria obelisk to New York, in the one case the whole prow of the barge was removed, and in the other a port was cut in the bows of the steamer through which the obelisk was introduced (see sections 53 and 54).

Pliny, in his Natural History, book XXXVI, chap. 14, gives an account of how King Ptolemy Philadelphus had an obelisk transported to Alexandria. He tells us, apropos of the loading on to the boat: “A canal was dug from the River Nile to the spot where the obelisk lay; and two broad vessels, loaded with blocks of similar stone a foot square—the cargo of each amounting to double the size, and consequently double the weight of the obelisk—were put beneath it; the extremities of the obelisk remaining supported by the opposite sides of the canal. The blocks of stone were removed and the vessels, being thus gradually lightened, received their burden.” If this was so or not, it certainly was not the method by which the obelisks were brought from the AswÂn quarries to the bank. No trace of a canal of this sort is to be seen, though there are plenty of traces of enormous embankments.