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 93 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 5 feet square. 

 Again, in one of the quarries at Assouan is a granite obelisk, 1 

 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 



II 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, 

 paid a similar tribute to the skill of the ancient Egyptians. 



1 "Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol, iii., p. 332. 



