“The obelisk was upwards of seventy feet high, weighed 240 tons, and was situated 1,200 feet from the Nile, with a difficult intervening space of ground. The first work was the formation of an inclined plane from the base of the obelisk to the edge of the river—a task which occupied about 700 Arabs and Frenchmen for three months. The obelisk was then cased in wood from top to bottom, to prevent the hieroglyphic sculptures from being injured; and it was safely lowered to the ground by a careful arrangement of cables, anchors, beams, and other apparatus. It was lowered on a kind of stage or cradle, and then dragged along the inclined plane by manual labour. The bow end of the ship had been meanwhile cut off in a singular manner, so as to present a wide mouth into which the obelisk gradually glided, while the ship lay high and dry on the sandy shore of the river. The severed bow of the ship was then adjusted in its proper place, and the obelisk was thus housed for the present.
“Although the obelisk was thus placed in the vessel in November, 1831, it was not till August, 1832, that there was sufficient water in the Nile to float it. A period of more than three months elapsed before the adventurers reached the mouth of the Nile, after a voyage of great difficulty and tediousness. The voyage from thence to Toulon occupied them, with various delays, till May. But as the land journey from Toulon to Paris (four hundred and fifty miles) is one which would have been insurmountable with the obelisk, the vessel sailed round to Cherbourg, where it arrived in August, 1834, having been towed by a man-of-war all the way from Egypt. From Cherbourg the vessel was towed to Havre, and from thence by a steam-boat up the Seine to Paris. During the year 1835, preparations were made for the obelisk in the centre of the Place de la Concorde; and in August, 1836, it was placed in the spot destined for it, in presence of the royal family and half the population of Paris.”
Another writer, alluding to the same subject in The Builder for 1851, vol. ix., also supplies us with interesting details, from personal observation, as to the transport of the Luxor obelisk. He says, that having for some time—
“Considered the matter of bringing the column of Luxor to Paris, and that having reached that city just before the preparations for its erection were finished, and again before the materials had been removed, he can give the following particulars:—
“This monolith stood on the east bank of the Nile, at Luxor, part of the territory or soil of Thebes—famous for its 500 gates; the ancient and celebrated capital of Egypt.
“It was executed about 1,600 years before the Christian era, and about the time of Moses and the exodus of the Israelites, and is consequently about 3,500 years old; though some give it 1,000 or 1,200 years more. It is of reddish Syené granite, beautifully polished, and sculptured with 1,600 figures. The inscription tells us that Pharaoh Rameses II. erected the great northern temple at the palace of Luxor, in honour of his father Ammon.
“It was on a pedestal 3 feet 9 inches high, which was not brought to France.
“England having obtained the fallen pillar, called Cleopatra’s Needle, at Alexandria, France demanded, and got the standing one; but those at Luxor being in a perfect state, whilst those at Alexandria had suffered from the climate, France requested, and was allowed to give up, that of Alexandria for that of Luxor.
“Thebes is about 500 miles above Alexandria; and the distance it had to be brought to Paris, including the various detours, is estimated at 3,000 miles.
“The height of the pillar, from the pedestal to the summit, is 75 feet 10 inches. The breadth, on the widest face of its base, 8 feet and a quarter of an inch. The breadth at the top, where the pyramid begins, 5 feet 8¾ inches. Its weight, between 250 and 280 tons.