The Aswân Obelisk: With some remarks on the Ancient EngineeringEngelbach, Reginald
History
The Aswân Obelisk: With some remarks on the Ancient Engineering
Engelbach, Reginald
Egypt -- Antiquities; Obelisks
(31) Plate VII gives a rough plan of the quarry in which the obelisk
lies. It is accurate as regards the obelisk, embankments and the rock
faces A, B and C. It will be seen that the rock at B, which is also
shewn on plate III, no. 2, has been partly cut away, presumably to
let the point of the obelisk pass out of the quarry. It may be only a
coincidence, but, strangely enough, the distance A C (from both ends
of which rock has been removed), is almost exactly the length of the
obelisk. My opinion is that the obelisk was only rolled sideways for
a very short distance until it was very little higher than the level
of the floor of the valley, and was then put on to rollers running on
heavy baulks of limber, the process being:
(1) Track prepared before the obelisk has reached its lowest level.
(2) Track and rollers covered over with soft sand, the line of the
track being marked by sighting poles.
(3) Obelisk rolled down on to the sand above the track.
(4) Sand dug away from under the obelisk. In the end, I think that
this way would be quicker than levering the obelisk up by horizontal
levers—but that is still a possibility.
It has been doubted that the Egyptians knew rollers, but without them
I do not see how a thousand-ton block can be transported. After all,
the Assyrians were familiar with them in the 8^{th} century B. C. at
latest (section 29), and there was extensive communication between them
and the Egyptians for centuries before that. Are we to assume that the
discovery was made between the probable 15^{th} century of our obelisk
and the 8^{th}?
The Luxor obelisk, in the course of its removal to Paris, was dragged
along a specially prepared wooden track after it had been mounted on a
wooden ‘cradle’, the track being well greased. The pulling was done by
capstans and blocks and tackles. It was found that a pull of 94 tons
was required to pull the obelisk up the slope leading to the pedestal.
This was with a 227‐ton obelisk. Since friction with average-sized
blocks is about proportional to the weight, to pull the Aswân obelisk
would need (1168/227 × 94) = 485 tons, which would require about 11,000
men. I cannot believe that all these could have been arranged so as to
pull the obelisk up an embankment (see sections 35 and 37). {32}
The great advantage of rollers is that comparatively little space is
required and a minimum of pulling force; its disadvantages are that
there is always a risk of the rollers becoming jammed, and that, even
on a slight incline, the obelisk is liable to get out of control.
As to the sizes of the rollers required, I can only say that the top
of the fallen obelisk of Ḥatshepsôwet now rests on 20 cent. diameter
pitch-pine rollers, spaced one metre apart, and there is not the
faintest sign of crushing. The worst stress with the Aswân obelisk
might rise to 11 times as much as the example cited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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