Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

ANCIENT ENGINEERING have here evidence of an ordered arrangement and no little skill in handling large masses of stone at a period that must date back to far before the Roman Conquest. At Carnac, in Brittany, are perhaps the most wonderful of all the monu- ments of the prehistoric Stone Age. There one may indulge to the full the emotions aroused by gazing on monu- ments of, in many cases, unknown ori- gin. The stones may be classified under two headings—the dolmens, or tomb- stones ; and the menhirs, or single pil- lars. There are more than two hundred dolmens in the district, The Stones on same Carnac. Plan—several larSe UP" right stones capped by a huge slab. Originally they formed the central chambers of burial mounds. The action of wind and water, and the robbing of the earth by agriculturists for use on their fields, have gradually denuded them. The capstone of one tomb measures 28 feet by 14 feet, and is several feet thick ; another, 16 feet by 16 feet—both of a size to do honour to the noble dead whose bones once lay beneath them. Even more striking than these erec- tions are the menhirs. On the top of the tomb of some prehistoric Achilles lie the fragments of a rough granite pillar, which, when upright, rose 67 feet into the air. Its weight has been estimated at over 350 tons. We are able to give an illustra- tion of another monster, “ the Giant of Kerdef. ’ The “ Lines ” of Carnac are unique. They are to Brittany what the Pyra- mids are to Egypt, or the Taj-Mahal to India. Dolmens and solitary monoliths seem but side-shows in comparison. For a dis- tance of about two and a half miles stretch The Carnac ‘ Lines.” THE GIANT OF KERDEF. Photo, L. le Rouzic, Carnac. A solitary stone pillar or Menhir, 17 feet high. eleven more or less parallel rows of huge up-ended stones, three thousand or so in number. The largest must weigh upwards of 40 tons, and the sum total of the whole “Lines” cannot fall short of 12,000 tons. There is evidence to show that these phalanxes of granite were transported and erected at least three thousand five hundred years ago by men quite ignorant of the use of iron. They represent a great engineering feat, and