54 On the Method of Moving Colossal Stones. 
the walls of the rock-hewn tombs of Egypt hand down to us, as 
the practice of that remarkable nation in early times. 
Not far from Antinoe, and in one of the grottoes on the hills 
immediately behind the village E’ Dayr e’ Nakhl, in the Arabian 
desert, on the eastern bank of the Nile, at the distance of some 
few miles from the river, and therefore but little visited, the early 
pioneers of Egyptian antiquities, (Captains Irby and Mangles) 
discovered the very interesting subject of the transport of a colossal 
figure by means of a vast number of workmen, towing it on a 
sledge with ropes. I myself visited this tomb during last winter 
and made a rough sketch of the painting on the walls: but I prefer 
to describe it in the words of Sir Gardner Wilkinson.! “The 
subject,” (he remarks) “is doubly interesting, from its being of the 
early age of Osirtasen II., (that is to say, of the 12th Dynasty, or 
about B.C. 2000,) and also one of the very few paintings which 
throw any light on the method employed by the Egyptians for 
moving weights; a singular fact, since those people have left so 
many unquestionable proofs of skill in these matters. In this 
representation, one hundred and seventy two men, in four rows of 
forty three each, pull the ropes attached to the front of the sledge : 
but this number of men is probably indefinite, and it is supposed 
by Sir Gardner Wilkinson that more were really employed than 
are indicated in the painting. Upon the pedestal of the statue 
stands a man pouring a liquid from a vase, probably grease or 
perhaps water, in order to facilitate its progress as it slides over 
the ground, which was probably covered with a bed of planks, 
though they are not shown in the picture. Behind the statue are 
four rows of men, in all twelve in number, representing either the 
architects and masons, or those who had an employment about the 
place where the statue was to be conveyed. Below are others car- 
rying vases, apparently of water, and some machinery connected 
with the transport of the statue, followed by taskmasters with their 
wands of office. On the knee of the figure stands a man who claps 

1Manners and Customs of the ancient Egyptians, vol. iii., pp. 325—329. 
See also Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, by the same author. (Murray) 
p, 289. 
