The construction of ancient boats is discussed in Ancient Egypt, 1920, Part 1 ff. by Mr. Somers Clarke, and a detailed description of
atshepsôwet’s boat is given by Naville, in his work cited above, on pages 2 to 4. Boats are also described in WILKINSON, Manners and Customs, vol. I, p. 276, and vol. II, pp. 211, 212.
To me, the only practicable way of loading such an obelisk on to a boat, would be by building an embankment round and over the boat, pulling the obelisk into a position above it, and then digging the boat and channel clear again. We can hardly believe that the obelisk was hauled in over the gunwale! In moving the Luxor obelisk to Paris, and the Alexandria obelisk to New York, in the one case the whole prow of the barge was removed, and in the other a port was cut in the bows of the steamer through which the obelisk was introduced (see sections [53] and 54).
Pliny, in his Natural History, book XXXVI, chap. 14, gives an account of how King Ptolemy Philadelphus had an obelisk transported to Alexandria. He tells us, apropos of the loading on to the boat: “A canal was dug from the River Nile to the spot where the obelisk lay; and two broad vessels, loaded with blocks of similar stone a foot square—the cargo of each amounting to double the size, and consequently double the weight of the obelisk—were put beneath it; the extremities of the obelisk remaining supported by the opposite sides of the canal. The blocks of stone were removed and the vessels, being thus gradually lightened, received their burden.” If this was so or not, it certainly was not the method by which the obelisks were brought from the Aswân quarries to the bank. No trace of a canal of this sort is to be seen, though there are plenty of traces of enormous embankments.
CHAPTER VI. ERECTION OF OBELISKS.
(35) The only reference the Egyptians have left us actually referring to the erection of a monument is that given in the Papyrus Anastasi I (for publication, see section [28]). The monument to be erected is in this case a colossus. The text gives (§ XIV): “It is said to thee: Empty the magazine that has been loaded with sand under the monument of thy Lord which has been brought from the Red Mountain. It makes 30 cubits stretched on the ground, and 20 cubits in breadth . . . . . -ed with 100 (??) chambers filled with sand from the river-bank. The . . . . . of its (?) chambers have a breadth of 44 (?) cubits and a height of 50 cubits, all of them . . . . . in their . . . . . . . . . Thou art commanded to find out what is before the Pharaoh (??). How many men will it take to demolish (
m—also “remove” or “overturn”) it in six hours—if (?) apt are their (?) minds (?), but small their desire to demolish it without there coming a pause when thou givest a rest to the soldiers, that they may take their meal—so that the monument may be established in its place?”
Here the technical details are extremely obscure, as there are many unknown words in the text.