Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

ANCIENT ENGINEERING. 11 them from their native rock. The wetted wedge was the ancient substitute for modern explosives. How did the ancients manage to trans- port and raise such masses of stone ? A generally definite answer cannot be given, though we may make some “ guesses at levers. A somewhat similar proof of ancient methods is given by an Egyptian painting of a colossus drawn on a sledge by one hundred and seventy-two men, ranged in four rows of forty-three each. In one respect ancient and modern expedients were alike. An individual stands on the leg of the image, and claps his THE GREAT STONE OF BAALBEC. It is 69 feet long, 17 feet high, and 14 feet wide. Estimated weight, 1,500 tons. The man reclining on this stone affords a standard of size. It is probably the largest cut stone in the world. truth ” which How did the Ancients move Great Weights ? should not be far wide of the mark. On an old Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum is the representation of a large number of slaves dragging a sledge on which reclines a mas- sive stone bull. In front are men laying down wooden rollers, while others urge the sledge behind with hands as a signal to the team of men to pull together. When a single piece of granite, weighing 1,200 tons, which formed the pedestal of the equestrian statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg, was drawn to its site, a drummer was placed on the top of the huge block to perform the same service.* The great Temple of Diana, built at Ephesus * Quarterly Review, ccxl., 430.