At the extreme left of the quarry-face, in the position indicated on plate VI, there is an inscription of two lines in the hieratic character. It is very faint indeed and I have not succeeded in deciphering it. The fact that it is in black paint on very dark red weathered granite has made it very difficult to photograph. It appears to begin with a date, and to have a number in the middle, but there is no name of a king. (20) At the top of the upper quarry-face there is what seems to be the bed from which a monument, very probably a small obelisk, of 7 metres long has been extracted. The bottom of the trench can still be traced where the work has been divided up into grooves of similar width to those in the obelisk trench. Here the feet have become irregular, but the double-foot is of great regularity and measures 59.8 centimetres. Plate V, no. 2, shews the bed at the top of the rock face and no. 3 the same seen from above. It will be noticed that, in this case, the undercutting has been done by pounding, but with less regularity than in the obelisk trench, shewing that it was done by hand. The obelisk seems to have been snapped off, or more likely it broke off of itself. It is hardly justifiable to deduce how the large obelisks were extracted from such a small example. In all probability the principle was the same, but the details very different. This is discussed in sections 21–23. {21} At the west end of the ridge from which the monument has been removed, there is a short inscription in red paint. A photograph of this is given in plate V, no. 4. It seems to begin with the words [glyphs] . . . . . “the work (of) . . . . . ”. The remainder is illegible to me, though the signs are quite clear. They resemble some of the quarry-signs I have seen at Maʿallah and elsewhere. {23} CHAPTER IV. EXTRACTION OF OBELISK FROM QUARRY. (21) Having examined, as far as possible, the methods by which the obelisk was separated from the surrounding rock, we will consider by what means the obelisk was detached from its bed and got into a position in which it could be handled and transported. It might be remarked that this particular obelisk has _not_ been transported; there is no doubt, however, that the man responsible for the work had quite definite ideas as to how he was going to perform the feat. Although it is the largest obelisk known (_pace_ the phantom 108 cubit obelisk of Ḥatshepsôwet), the old engineers have actually moved even heavier and more unmanageable blocks: the colossus of the Ramesseum and the colossi of Amenophis III at Thebes. If we can solve the ancient method of dealing with this particular obelisk, we can the more easily understand how the others were dealt with. There seem to be two methods by which the obelisk could be detached from its bed; the snapping off of such an obelisk in the manner mentioned in section 19 being out of the question.