58 On the Method of Moving Colossal Stones. 
I have but one more instance to adduce, but that will be found 
to outweigh even the stupendous obelisks and massive building 
stones of Egypt. It is in Syria, at the Great Temple of Baalbec,' 
within two day’s journey of Damascus, and forms part of the most 
magnificent ruin the world can shew. I allude to the three? well- 
known stones of enormous magnitude, now built into the foundation 
wall of the temple; but which, nearly black in colour from weather 
stains of countless ages, are undoubtedly far anterior even to the 
ancient ruins amongst which they lie, and are of unknown antiquity. 
The masonry all around is truly cyclopean: there are no less than 
nine other stones each measuring 31 feet in length, 13 in height, 
and 93 in width: but each of these three gigantic masses measures 
above 63 feet in length, 13 in height, and 13 in thickness: and yet 
they were not only moved from the quarry in the neighbouring rocks 
to the site of the temple, but somehow raised to their present posi- 
tion at least 20 feet above the ground, and that though each of 
these stones is calculated to weigh above 900 tons. I will add as 
a climax, though this is hardly a case in point, for it never was 
moved, that at the quarry whence these massive stones were 
obtained, one enormous block remains, ready hewn, but not quite 
detached: it is even larger than the other three; being in length 
68 feet, in height 14 feet, in breadth 14 feet: it thus contains 
above 13,000 cubic feet, and would probably weigh more than 
1100 tons. The figures given above are indeed almost incredible, 
.but the stones themselves still stand to prove the correctness of the 
measure given, and I measured them myself this year, and can 
vouch for their accuracy. 
Now after giving the above dimensions and weights, and showing 
that the more civilized nations of antiquity moved their colossal 
figures by the united strength of multitudes, aided by a few of the 
more simple mechanical contrivances, we seem to have narrowed 
our subject into trifling dimensions, for when we come now to 
compare the size and bulk of the stones of Avebury or Stone- 


1 Porter’s Handbook for Syria and Palestine, (Murray) vol. ii., p. 559. 
*From these stones the Great Temple took the name by which it was long 
called, ‘‘ Trilithon,” the three-stoned. 
