Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/97

Construction, / :> fatigue. In the upper part we see a numerous troop of Egyptians carrying palm branches, who seem to be leading the procession. From the first centuries of the monarchy blocks of ofranite of unusual size were thus transferred from place to place. We learn this from the epitaph of a high official named Una, who lived in the time of the sixth dynasty,-^ He recounts the services which he had rendered in bringing to Memphis the blocks of granite and alabaster required for the royal undertakings. ^Mention is made of buildings which had been constructed for the reception of monoliths. The largest of those buildings was 60 cubits (about 102 feet) long by 30 cubits wide. A little farther on we are told that one monolith required 3,000 men for its transport. Thanks to their successful wars the great Theban princes had far wider resources at their command than their predecessors. Their architects could count upon the labour not only of the fellahs of the corvde^ but also upon thousands of foreign prisoners. It w^as not astonishing, therefore, that the enterprises of the ancient empire were thrown into the shade. Neither were the Sait monarchs behind those of Thebes. Accordingf to Herodotus the monolithic chapel which Amasis brought from the Elephantine quarries was 39 feet high by nearly 23 feet wide and 13 feet deep, outside measurement.- Taking the hollow inside into con- sideration such a stone must have weighed about 48 tons. Two thousand boatmen were occupied for three years in trans- porting this chapel from Elephantine into the Delta. Another town in the same res^ion must have had a still larofer monolithic chapel, if we are to believe the Greek historian's account of it. It was square, and each of its sides measured 40 cubits (nearly 70 feet). 3 How did they set about erecting their obelisks ? Upon this point we have no information whatever, either from inscriptions or from figured monuments. They may have used an inclined plane, to the summit of which the obelisk was drawn by the force ^ Brugsch, Histoire d' Egypte. vol. i. pp. 74 et seq. ' We agree with Wilkinson in taking for the height that which Herodotus calls the length. In all monuments of the kind the height is the largest measurement. Herodotus's phrase is easily explained. The monolith appears to have been lying in front of the temple into which they had failed to introduce it. (KctVa/. -apa ri]v erro8ov, he says). Its height had thus become its length. ^ Herodotus, ii. 155.