Mr. A. M. MacGillivray, of Aswân, took the photographs shewn on plate [II] and plate [V], nos. 1 and 2, and has kindly permitted them to appear here.
(2) I began the work shortly after the departure of King Fuad, and soon found that the excavation would be more extensive than I had at first supposed; the length of the obelisk had reached 36 metres by April 1921, and the chip-heap, covering the butt end of the obelisk, began to shew signs of giving way. I had made arrangements, as regards the angle of the chip-heap, supposing that the obelisk was not larger than any of the known obelisks. Thirty-six metres was a surprise, so, as Ramadan was approaching, I abandoned the work for the season and applied for a further credit to make a complete clearance. This was done in the winter of 1921–22 by Mahmûd Eff. Mohammad, Inspector of Edfù, assisted by Mustafa Eff. Hasan, ‘chef de fouilles’ of the same district. I visited the site from time to time whenever my {2} other work permitted, but it was not till the end of the tourist season that I had sufficient time to study the obelisk.
During the removal of the chip-heap, we found some hundreds of large granite blocks thrown from a quarry above on to the obelisk; these had to be cut into two, and sometimes into four, before our workmen could handle them. At first we borrowed men from the Selugia quarries, but afterwards we employed local stonemasons, who proved more satisfactory, as they did not all want to be raises.
The total cost of the clearance was L. E. 75.
A word of explanation is, perhaps, needed on the system of weights and measures used in this volume. It has been the custom of my Department to insist on metric scales in all plans. In the text, however, I enter somewhat deeply into the stresses and strains set up in the granite, and since nearly all the English engineering text-books and tables use the ton-inch units, I have adhered to the English system, reducing the metric linear measures to inches in my calculations. The tonne and the kilogramme-per-square-centimetre still convey little to the average English-speaking engineer, who has to have recourse to his slide-rule before being able to realise the strains set up when they are given in metric units.
CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF THE OBELISK.
(3) The obelisk is 41.75 metres long, lying with its point 18.5 degrees north of east, and sloping down towards the butt at an angle of 11 degrees, making the base of the pyramidion 7.05 metres above the level of the butt. When complete, the obelisk would have weighed 1168 tons English.
It is curious that, during all the years that this obelisk has been known, those who were interested in the ancient methods of quarrying have not taken the trouble to clear it. Nearly every work in which it is mentioned dismisses it in a few sentences. Both Gorringe in his Egyptian Obelisks and Bædeker give its length as 95 feet and the width at the butt as 11 feet 1.5 inches. How they arrived at the latter figure passes my understanding, as it was buried under a chip-heap to a depth of 7 metres. Perhaps the measurements were given by the original writer, whoever he may have been, not as a fact, but as a prophecy.
The measurements of the obelisk are:
| Total length | 41.75 | metres. |
| Base | 4.20 | metres. |
| Base of pyramidion | 2.50 | metres. |
| Height of pyramidion | 4.50 | metres. |
| Weight when finished | 1168 | English tons. |