Among the treasures of antiquity, found in the Thebais, were, till very lately, two granite columns, of precisely the same character as Cleopatra’s Needles. Of these one remains on the spot; the other, with great labour and expense, has been transported to Paris. When the French army, in their attempt on Egypt, penetrated as far as Thebes, they were, almost to a man, overpowered by the majesty of the ancient monuments they saw before them; and Buonaparte is then said to have conceived the idea of removing at least one of the obelisks to Paris. But reverses and defeat followed. The French were compelled to abandon Egypt; and the English, remaining masters of the seas, effectually prevented any such importation into France.
“[279]Thirty years after Buonaparte’s first conception of the idea, the French government, then under Charles X., having obtained the consent of the pasha of Egypt, determined that one of the obelisks of Luxor should be brought to Paris. ‘The difficulties of doing this,’ says M. Delaborde, ‘were great. In the first place, it was necessary to build a vessel which should be large enough to contain the monument, deep enough to stand the sea, and, at the same time, draw so little water as to be able to ascend and descend such rivers as the Nile and the Seine.’
“In the month of February, 1831, when the crown of France had passed into the hands of Louis Philippe, a vessel, built as nearly as could be on the necessary principles, was finished and equipped at Toulon. This vessel, which for the sake of lightness was chiefly made of fir and other white wood, was named the ‘Luxor.’ The crew consisted of one hundred and twenty seamen, under the command of Lieutenant Verninac, of the French royal navy; and there went, besides, sixteen mechanics of different professions, and a master to direct the works under the superintendence of M. Lebas.
“After staying forty-two days at Alexandria, the expedition sailed for the mouth of the Nile. At Rosetta they remained some days, and on the 20th of June M. Lebas, the engineer, two officers, and a few of the sailors and workmen, leaving the ‘Luxor’ to make her way up the river slowly, embarked in common Nile-boats for Thebes, carrying with them the tools and materials necessary for the removal of the obelisk. The ‘Luxor’ did not arrive at Thebes until the 14th of August, which was two months after her departure from Alexandria.
“Reaumur’s thermometer marked from thirty degrees to thirty-eight in the shade, and ascended to fifty, and even to fifty-five degrees, in the sun. Several of the sailors were seized with dysentery, and the quantity of sand blown about by the wind, and the glaring reflection of the burning sun, afflicted others with painful ophthalmia. The sand was particularly distressing: one day the wind raised it and rolled it onward in such volume as, at intervals, to obscure the light of the sun. After they had felicitated themselves on the fact that the plague was not in the country, they were struck with alarm, on the 29th of August, by learning that the cholera morbus had broken out most violently at Cairo. On the 11th of September [Pg 443] the same mysterious disease declared itself on the plain of Thebes, with the natives of which the French were obliged to have frequent communications. In a very short time fifteen of the sailors, according to M. J. U. Angelina, the surgeon, caught the contagion, but every one recovered under his care and skill.
“In the midst of these calamities and dangers, the French sailors persevered in preparing the operations relative to the object of the expedition. One of the first cares of M. Lebas, on his arriving on the plain of Thebes, was to erect near to the obelisks, and not far from the village of Luxor, proper wooden barracks—sheds and tents to lodge the officers, sailors, and workmen on shore; he also built an oven to bake them bread, and magazines in which to secure their provisions, and the sails, cables, &c. of the vessel.
“The now desolate site, on which the City of the Hundred Gates once stood, offered them no resources of civilised life. But French soldiers and sailors are happily, and, we may say, honourably distinguished, by the facility with which they adapt themselves to circumstances, and turn their hands to whatever can add to their comfort and well-being. The sailors on this expedition, during their hours of repose from more severe labours, carefully prepared and dug up pieces of ground for kitchen-gardens. They cultivated bread-melons and watermelons, lettuces, and other vegetables; they even planted some trees, which thrived very well; and, in short, they made their place of temporary residence a little paradise, as compared with the wretched huts and neglected fields of the oppressed natives.
“It was the smaller of the two obelisks the French had to remove; but this smaller column of hard, heavy granite was seventy-two French feet high, and was calculated to weigh upwards of two hundred and forty tons. It stood, moreover, at the distance of about one thousand two hundred feet from the Nile, and the intervening space presented many difficulties.
“M. Lebas commenced by making an inclined plane, extending from the base of the obelisk to the edge of the river. This work occupied nearly all the French sailors, and about seven hundred Arabs, during three months; for they were obliged to cut through two hills of ancient remains and rubbish, to demolish half of the poor villages which lay in their way[280], and to beat, equalise, and render firm the uneven, loose, and crumbling soil. This done, the engineer proceeded to make the ship ready for the reception of the obelisk. The vessel had been left aground by the periodical fall of the waters of the Nile, and matters had been so managed that she [Pg 444]lay imbedded in the sand, with her figure-head pointing directly towards the temple and the granite column. The engineer, taking care not to touch the keel, sawed off a section of the front of the ship; in short, he cut away her bows, which were raised, and kept suspended above the place they properly occupied, by means of pulleys and some strong spars, which crossed each other above the vessel.
“The ship, thus opened, presented in front a large mouth to receive its cargo, which was to reach the very lip of that mouth or opening, by sliding down the inclined plane. The preparations for bringing the obelisk safely down to the ground lasted from the 11th of July to the 31st of October, when it was laid horizontally on its side.