DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0087
70 DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.
sort of epitome of man's life and actions, and are the principal
subjects in the tombs, together with the funeral rites and
other ceremonies relating exclusively to the deceased.
It is singular that, among the many painted there, some of
the most important occupations and discoveries are entirely
omitted; and were it not for the results that remain to bear wit-
ness of them, we should have had no proof of their having been
known to them. One of these is the method they employed for
transporting and raising the enormous blocks of stone that have
excited so much surprise in ancient and modern times, and of
which no satisfactory representation is found on the monu-
ments. "We have, indeed, abundant evidence of it; but there
is no indication of the mode of hewing such a mass as the
colossus of Kemeses II., nor of the mode of transporting this
weight of S87 tons to Thebes; and except the smaller lime-
stone blocks, carried on sledges drawn by oxen from the
quarries of El Mahsara, and the colossus of El Bersheh,* said
in the hieroglyphics to be thirteen cubits (or about twenty
feet) high, which is represented on a sledge dragged by the
force of men's arms, we have no information from the sculp-
tures respecting the mechanism they employed for moving,
and still less for raising, great weights. "YVe may admire the
skill required for conveying the granite colossus of Eemeses
from the quarries of the first cataracts to Thebes, a distance of
more than 130 miles; but if the measurements of the mono-
lith of Buto given by Herodotus are even an approximation to
the truth, the transport of that monument from the same
quarries to the Delta is far beyond any other attempt with
which we are acquainted, as it could not have weighed less
than five thousand tons.
Similar omissions of other common processes and customs are
* T. A. of Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. (frontispiece).
sort of epitome of man's life and actions, and are the principal
subjects in the tombs, together with the funeral rites and
other ceremonies relating exclusively to the deceased.
It is singular that, among the many painted there, some of
the most important occupations and discoveries are entirely
omitted; and were it not for the results that remain to bear wit-
ness of them, we should have had no proof of their having been
known to them. One of these is the method they employed for
transporting and raising the enormous blocks of stone that have
excited so much surprise in ancient and modern times, and of
which no satisfactory representation is found on the monu-
ments. "We have, indeed, abundant evidence of it; but there
is no indication of the mode of hewing such a mass as the
colossus of Kemeses II., nor of the mode of transporting this
weight of S87 tons to Thebes; and except the smaller lime-
stone blocks, carried on sledges drawn by oxen from the
quarries of El Mahsara, and the colossus of El Bersheh,* said
in the hieroglyphics to be thirteen cubits (or about twenty
feet) high, which is represented on a sledge dragged by the
force of men's arms, we have no information from the sculp-
tures respecting the mechanism they employed for moving,
and still less for raising, great weights. "YVe may admire the
skill required for conveying the granite colossus of Eemeses
from the quarries of the first cataracts to Thebes, a distance of
more than 130 miles; but if the measurements of the mono-
lith of Buto given by Herodotus are even an approximation to
the truth, the transport of that monument from the same
quarries to the Delta is far beyond any other attempt with
which we are acquainted, as it could not have weighed less
than five thousand tons.
Similar omissions of other common processes and customs are
* T. A. of Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. (frontispiece).