By William Long, Esq. 113 



which a number of men are employed in drag^ging with ropes, and 

 which representation was found by Messrs. Irby and Mangles in a 

 grotto behind E'Dayr, a Christian village behind Antinoe and El 

 Bersheh. In this picture we see represented the statue bound upon 

 a sledge with ropes, a man standing on the knees of the colossus 

 beating time with his hands, and giving out the verse of a song, to 

 which the men responded ; another man on the sledge at the feet of 

 the colossus, pouring out in front of the sledge a liquid, perhaps 

 grease, from a vase ; four rows of men, in pairs, dragging the statue;' 

 Egyptian soldiers ; men carrying water or grease ; others carrying 

 implements ; taskmasters ; and reliefs of men. In one of the quarries 

 at El Maasara, another mode of transporting a stone is represented. 

 '' It is placed on a sledge, drawn by oxen, and is supposed to be on 

 its way to the inclined plain that led to the river ; vestiges of which 

 may still be seen a little to the south of the modern village." Mr. 

 Samuel Sharpe,' in his account of the mechanical arts, as practised 

 by the Egyptians, says : " Of the various ways in which the en- 

 gineering difficulties might have been overcome, we may take it for 

 granted that the rudest was that actually used. We know that when 

 a town was to be stormed, the military engineers were often driven 

 to the slow and laborious method of raising against it a mound of 

 earth of the same height as the city wall, and from this the besiegers 

 attacked the garrison on equal terms. . . . If an obelisk ninety 

 feet long was to be placed upright, it was probably lifted up by 

 means of a mound of earth, which was raised higher and higher, till 

 the stone, which leaned on it, was set up on one end. If a huge 

 block was to be placed on the top of a wall, it may have been rolled 

 on rollers up a mound of sand to its place. Such labour will, in 

 time overcome difficulties which yield more quickly to a smaller force 

 when skilfully directed. Of the six simple machines called the 

 mechanical powers, the Egyptians used the wedge, the lever, and the 

 inclined plane; but seem not to have known the screw, pulley, or the 

 wheel and axle. Though their chariots ran on wheels, they chose 

 to drag a colossal statue on a sledge, rather than to risk the 



> History of Egypt, i„ 40, Ed., 1839. 

 VOL. XVI. NO. XLVI. I 



