By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 57 
or to Heliopolis, no less than 800 miles from the quarries. They 
are each of a single block of granite, and they vary in size from 
70 to 98 feet in length: the largest in Egypt, which is that of the 
great temple at Karnac, has been calculated to weigh about 297 
tons: and this must have been brought 138 miles. The power 
however to move the mass was the same, whatever might be the 
distance, and the mechanical skill which transported it five or even 
one, would suffice for any number of miles. Then again the skill 
of the Egyptians was not confined to the mere moving these im- 
mense weights: their wonderful knowledge of mechanism is shown 
in the erection of these Obelisks; and in the position of large 
stones, such as those of which the pyramids are built, raised to a 
considerable height, and adjusted with the utmost precision : some- 
times too in situations where the space will not admit the intro- 
duction of the inclined plane. Some of the most remarkable are 
the lintels and roofing stones of the large temples: and the lofty 
doorway, leading into the grand hall of assembly at Karnac, is 
covered with sandstone blocks, above 40 feet long and 6 feet square. 
Again, in one of the quarries at Assouan is a granite obelisk,’ 
which having been broken in the centre after it was finished, was 
left in the exact spot where it had been separated from the rock : 
I measured this obelisk, and found it above 95 feet in length and 
11 in breadth at the largest part. The depth of the quarry is so 
small, and the entrance to it so narrow, that it was impossible for 
the workmen to turn the stone, in order to remove it by that 
opening ; it is therefore evident that they must have lifted it out 
of the hollow in which it had been cut; as was the case with all 
the other shafts previously hewn in the same quarry. Such in- 
stances as these suffice to prove the wonderful mechanical knowledge 
of the Egyptians: and Sir Gardner Wilkinson even questions 
whether with the ingenuity and science of the present day, our 
engineers are capable of raising weights with the same facility as 
that ancient people: while M. Lebas, well-known in France as an 
eminent engineer, who removed the Obelisk of Luxor now at Paris, 
q _ paid a similar tribute to the skill of the ancient Egyptians. 
1 Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptiaus, vol. iii., p. 332. 

