ABSTRACT
Apparently all statues, obelisks, sarcophagi, etc., were finished at the quarry before transportation, except, perhaps, the polishing and cutting of hieroglyphics. With the clumsy methods of transportation in vogue, any excess of weight must have been an important matter, but the primary reason was most likely because the weather was always pleasant and the work could as well be done in the open air at the
Probably the sled on which it was to be transported was built under it at this time. We know from the sculpture at Deir-el-Bahri of the transport of an obelisk on a boat (fig. xvii.), that it rested on a sled, and this would have been the most favourable time for putting the obelisk upon it. It is seldom that one sees a more striking evidence of what can be accomplished by patient, unremitting toil than is afforded by this obelisk; but many writers are disposed to think that it is in itself a larger object than would be undertaken nowadays even with the aid of modern explosives; but this is far from being the case. Only last year, according to the U.S. "Industrial Journal," a block of granite was blown without fracture from the quarry of Redstone, N. H., which was 145 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 28 feet deep, a mass more than twel ve times as large as this Assouan obelisk. Though the ancients were faultlessly accurate in fitting granite blocks together, for some unknown reason they were not always so particular in cutting the sides of their obelisks. I t has been found that the two obelisks of Luxor, which were more accurately measured than any others, are crooked-the one in Paris being a little more so than the remaining one. Two of the sides of both obelisks are flat, but the other two swell out ')ver an inch and a
quarter: both as they originally stood at Luxor had the swelled sides in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and the centre of each obelisk was curved half an inch in aN. W. direction. Possibly this warping might happen to any stone taken fresh from the quarry and placed on end in the broiling sun of Egypt. The Paris obelisk was a little smaller than the other, and was placed half a diameter in advance, so that to a person approaching by the sphinx avenue leading to the temple they would look exactly the same. That the Paris obelisk was ever taken away is much to be regretted, for Luxor is the only temple in Egypt in which temple, pylon, statues, and obelisks still occupied their original positions.
