A long sloping embankment (section [35]) is made to lead up to the top of the platform, and a gentle curve cut in the brick (A) to lead down to the interior of the funnel. In the case of the obelisk of
atshepsôwet, the platform must have been at a high enough level to clear any buildings in the way.
The obelisk is then pulled up on rollers, base foremost, until it just overhangs the slope A. The funnel, previous to this, is filled with the finest Aswân sand, which has very little cohesion in its particles, banked high against the butt of the obelisk. The sand is then very gradually removed from the tunnel, thus letting the obelisk slowly down on to its pedestal. In this process, men would descend with the obelisk until the masonry portion of the tunnel was reached. Precautions would have to be taken, by banking the sand up before the butt of the obelisk and, if necessary, by inserting wooden struts between the butt and the wall B of the funnel, to prevent the obelisk jamming against it. After the masonry is reached, there would be little fear of a jam.
There is fairly good proof that blocks and statues were lowered on to their beds by emptying sand-bags which supported them. Choisy, in his L’Art de bâtir chez les Égyptiens, takes it for granted that this method must have been used for obelisks as well. His suggestion—or rather description, for he might well have been there—of how the Egyptians erected their obelisks, on page 124, is not to be taken seriously, except perhaps for the smallest obelisks (see section [50]).
If the method I suggest, or a modification of it, was that used for the erection of the largest obelisks, sand-bags are not necessary at all.
As to the flow of fine blown sand, I can speak from personal experience on the matter, as I have several times approached a big tomb-shaft filled with blown sand from below, having entered by another tomb breaking into it. The sand always lay sloping from the roof of the chamber joining the shaft to the floor, at an angle of about 20 degrees. It can be easily and safely removed from below without bringing down an avalanche. I am very sure that, at the end of the tunnel, no constant flow will occur, even when the sand is being pressed down by a 1168‐ton obelisk; it is more likely that men would have to remove the sand from half-way along the tunnel.
The bottom of the funnel would have to be slightly larger than the base of the obelisk, so as to be able to remove the sand, stones and brick fragments which might have come down with it.
If all went well, the obelisk, when it touched the pedestal, would lie against the near wall of the funnel with its base engaging in the notch. Men would then enter through the tunnel, and clear out all particles of sand from the surface of the pedestal and, if necessary, from around the base of the obelisk. {40}
Before passing the proofs of the volume, but after plate VIII was printed, I made a wooden model of a funnel of almost exactly the same proportions as that shewn on the plate. The height of the end of the embankment was 30 centimetres. This I tried with a 1/100 scale model of the obelisk in limestone, using finely sifted Aswân sand.