(4) Ropes would almost surely be inadequate to stop the obelisk from rocking out of control after it had passed its dead centre. The New York obelisk, when being pulled into a horizontal position about a specially made trunnion, supposed to be at its centre of gravity, took charge, snapped the cables and escaped breaking by a miracle. (5) Ḥatshepsôwet’s standing obelisk has (apparently) jumped forward nearly a foot in front of its notch. It can be seen, if one pulls upright a foot-long alabaster obelisk (sold at the Cairo fancy-shops) with cotton threads that it is impossible to make it jump forward after passing its dead-centre. What it does, if the pulling is not very even and square, is to pivot on one of its corners at the beginning or end of its first rock, with what would be disastrous results in a large obelisk. (37) The more usual explanation as to how the erecting was performed is that the obelisk was pulled on rollers up a long inclined embankment until it was at a height well above the centre of gravity of the obelisk. Having been rolled up base foremost, it was tilted over the end of the embankment, and the earth gradually cut away from below it until it settled down on to its pedestal, leaning against the embankment; from thence it was pulled upright (see PETRIE, _Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt_, p. 77, quoted in section 55). This seems a far more probable method than the last, but from a practical point of view it leaves a good deal unexplained. Anyone who has seen, in _sabâkh_ work or elsewhere, earth being cut from under a stone, or even being itself undercut, knows the way it has of slipping sideways or any way but the expected—generally on the heads of one’s workmen. With, say, a 500‐ton obelisk, the undercutting would be a somewhat delicate business to make it settle down true on to the pedestal. The tendency to rock and pivot when being finally pulled upright is not dealt with. Whatever method the Egyptians used, it was _sure_, and did not depend on the skill of the men with the hoe and basket. Before describing the method which I believe was used, it would be well to consider what means the Egyptians had at their disposal. (38) Levers must have surely been familiar to the Egyptians; the constant import of tree-trunks from Syria would furnish them with the material, and a hundred occurrences in every-day life, such as extracting a stone with the point of a hoe would suggest to them the application. The occurrence of a lever in the filling of a tomb at El-Bersheh is published by M. Daressy in _Annales du Service_, vol. I, p. 28, where he remarks: “On a retrouvé une branche d’acacia taillée en biseau à une extrémité qui avait dû servir de ciseau et de levier pour soulever le couvercle”.