- 5/25/2025
In Egypt, NOVA examines the quarrying of ancient obelisks, towering slabs of polished granite that pharaohs raised to honor the gods, and that now adorn Rome's piazzas, London's embankment, and Central Park. How did ancient laborers who had no metal tools or mechanized equipment carve out, transport, and raise single blocks of stone weighing several hundred tons? The team that made This Old Pyramid such a popular hit now travels to the quarries of Aswan, the source of the original obelisks. This time the team faces severe obstacles as they struggle to raise a thirty-five-foot-long replica from the living rock.
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00:003500 years ago, a glorious era dawned in ancient Egypt called the New Kingdom.
00:16With wealth pouring in from her conquests abroad, Egypt's builders and craftsmen achieved
00:21perfection in stone and gold.
00:27A line of pharaohs with memorable names ruled the land.
00:33Tutankhamun, Thutmose, Amenhotep, and most illustrious of all, Ramses the Great.
00:47The pharaohs believed themselves to be god-kings, and their greatest fear was to lose their
00:53place in the afterlife.
00:58In the quest for eternal life, the pharaoh had to ensure the preservation of both his
01:03body and his name.
01:08The fear of being forgotten was so strong that the pharaohs spent much of their lives
01:13creating memorials to themselves in stone.
01:18The most spectacular of these monuments were at Thebes, the heart of the New Kingdom.
01:36A thousand years earlier, the desire for immortality had led to the construction of
01:53the pyramids.
01:54But these mountains of stone were vulnerable to grave robbers, so the pharaohs of the New
02:00Kingdom hid their tombs in the isolated Valley of the Kings, below a pyramid-shaped hill.
02:07The passion for building on a gigantic scale was now directed to the creation of magnificent
02:14temples.
02:16The pyramid shape was not abandoned, just reduced in size and carved on top of a tall
02:25shaft of granite, the obelisk.
02:35These spires of stone represented rays of light.
02:40The pharaohs placed pairs of obelisks at the temple gate in praise of the sun god.
02:53Obelisks of a hundred feet were formed from a single piece of granite, one of the hardest
02:59stones to work.
03:02The base of the obelisk balances on top of a pedestal stone, supported by nothing more
03:07than its own weight.
03:13How the ancient Egyptians created these mighty obelisks, weighing 400 tons, is a question
03:19that has mystified archaeologists for years.
03:47Cecil B. DeMille tackled the problem in his 1959 epic, The Ten Commandments.
04:00Although he puts on an impressive spectacle, it's not clear how his several hundred-ton
04:05obelisk bounces so obediently into position without breaking.
04:10To explore the reality of obelisk raising, Nova assembled a team with a variety of talents.
04:19Egyptologist Mark Lehner, stonemason Roger Hopkins, ancient technology buff Martin Eisler,
04:35and Ali El-Ghassab, Egypt's foremost specialist in the moving of heavy statues.
04:41Their plan is to test out theories of how ancient obelisks were made by raising one
04:47themselves.
04:48There was a cutaway there, and there was no sand where it should be.
04:51There was no box.
04:52That obelisk couldn't contain any sand.
04:57The team has come to Aswan, the granite capital of Egypt.
05:04Like the obelisk builders of old, Roger and Mark's first task is to find a decent piece
05:10of granite, one without cracks or fissures.
05:13Well, it looks like we finally found a good, solid piece here, Mark.
05:18Yeah, it looks like a nice piece.
05:19Look at this down here, Mark.
05:21We've got a natural fissure.
05:24On this end, we've got it free, and the top looks fairly flat, and we've got a good square
05:29perpendicular solid face of stone here.
05:32I didn't really bother putting it on when we started.
05:35It's on that point there, and then, yeah.
05:40The next step is to sketch in an outline of the obelisk and then separate it from the
05:44living rock.
05:47At a nearby quarry, the ancient stone cutters have left impressive evidence of how this
05:52was done.
05:54The unfinished obelisk is a great block of granite still lying on its bed in the quarry,
06:00slanted from top to bottom.
06:02And the entire obelisk had been defined by a trench that ran around its perimeter.
06:13Granite is an extremely hard rock.
06:16The copper and bronze tools used by the ancient Egyptians were too soft to carve it, and iron
06:21tools were not yet available.
06:24So how did the ancient quarrymen work the granite?
06:29This is the basic tool they used to separate the obelisks.
06:32It's made out of a stone called dolerite that's harder and denser even than granite.
06:37These were found all over the obelisk site when it was first excavated, and even today,
06:41there are hundreds of them in the quarries of granite at Aswan.
06:45They simply took this in two hands and pounded the stone away, hour after hour, day after
06:53day.
06:55We pound, we pound, we work the granite down, lift, and we turn around one foot in either
07:03depression and we work to our right.
07:09With temperatures in excess of 120 degrees, it must have been a hellish experience.
07:16Ancient records tell us that up to 10 percent of the quarry workers died.
07:24After years of soul-destroying work, this obelisk had to be abandoned when cracks appeared
07:30in the giant shaft, making it impossible to separate in one piece.
07:36Because it was a failure, the pharaoh who commissioned this obelisk remains a total
07:40mystery.
07:41But whatever pharaoh it was, he was attempting to make a quantum leap in obelisks.
07:45This unfinished obelisk would have weighed something around 1,160 tons.
07:50The next largest one that we know is only 440 tons, but this pharaoh was clearly asking
07:56more of nature than nature could deliver.
08:03Not far from the unfinished obelisk, some local stonemasons try out the ancient pounders
08:09on the new obelisk that Roger is carving.
08:11Hey, Roger, how's it going?
08:13Well, welcome to the really unfinished obelisk.
08:17We're just starting here.
08:20Work on the trench that will define the obelisk began four hours ago, and they have hardly
08:25made a dent.
08:26And see how much it really helps out.
08:28Why don't you jump up here and take a look at it?
08:30Roger has built a small fire to see if he can speed up the process.
08:34I've been sitting right next to this thing.
08:36So this really, does this really accelerate the work all that much?
08:40Said, edifa.
08:41Ah, these are pieces that you've just popped off.
08:44Yes.
08:45Wow, that's...
08:46Remember how long it took to just pound a little square?
08:50Yeah, no, that's two millimeters.
08:53That's like two, three hours work.
08:55Absolutely.
08:56We're into pretty hard granite, because we've already gone over this once before.
09:00Wow.
09:01It's just knocking the really loose stuff off.
09:05But Mark has another idea.
09:07He has noticed that the surface of the unfinished obelisk has rows of indentations on it.
09:12They have given him a clue as to how the massive task of pounding was made more manageable.
09:19You know, one thought I had is when everybody's pounding like this, and it's so ill-defined,
09:23it looks hopeless.
09:24It looks infinite.
09:25At the unfinished obelisk, you saw those working patches, and they must have defined them very
09:30carefully so that each guy knew exactly what he had to do.
09:33I mean, wouldn't it be better if you drew a line here like this, and that that's all
09:39they had to worry about, and that one guy sitting here had to worry about that much.
09:45That was his patch right there.
09:47Don't you think they would get at it?
09:49I think, you know, they know where they're going.
09:55The work goes on with precious little to show.
09:58How's it going?
10:00Well, slowly, very slowly.
10:04I can see your trench.
10:06I see you have these nice little working patches.
10:09So how many days is this, Roger?
10:14Seven days of pounding here.
10:21Where are you going to go from here now?
10:22Are you going to pound?
10:23Are you going to be here for a couple of years putting this trench down, or are you going
10:27to speed it up a little bit?
10:28I hope to speed it up using more modern techniques.
10:32It's clear that using ancient techniques, it will take Roger months to carve even a
10:37small nine-foot obelisk.
10:39A shortcut is needed.
10:43The owner of an Aswan granite quarry comes to the rescue.
10:50Mr. Hamada Rashwan generously offers to supply Roger with a 40-foot-long obelisk weighing
10:5540 tons.
10:59Just half as tall as a full-size obelisk, raising it will still be a formidable task.
11:07Even with modern equipment, it's been tricky to move the obelisk out of the quarry without
11:12breaking.
11:25Thirty-three centuries earlier, the young Ramses the Great was also supervising the
11:30production of granite monuments.
11:33He ordered numerous obelisks and statues, including this 1,000-ton likeness of himself,
11:39now toppled by an earthquake.
11:47Ramses was the new kingdom's greatest builder, and nowhere is his larger-than-life style
11:54better exhibited than in Abu Simbel, where he transformed two sandstone cliffs into temples
12:00fronted by gigantic images of himself.
12:04Here he shows himself four times as seated statues on a colossal scale, merging with
12:10the gods.
12:12The whole temple facade seems to be saying to all who come from the south that as you
12:17enter the Nile Corridor from this point on, you're entering Egypt as a temple.
12:23Indeed, you're entering, Ramses is saying, my household, which I rule as a god.
12:31Only one of Ramses' obelisks is still standing in Egypt at the Temple of Luxor.
12:38The pharaoh ordered his obelisks covered in deeply inscribed hieroglyphs, praising him
12:43as a ruler great in wrath, so every land trembles before him.
12:51One of the great mysteries is how the ancient Egyptians carved these symbols without hard
12:57metal tools.
12:59First, they would have to polish and smooth the granite.
13:06You know, I think they probably could have used different stones.
13:10You could have started off with the diorite and real coarse sand and then gone to a sandstone,
13:16which is finer, and ended up with a limestone.
13:22Let's wash it off, see how it looks.
13:24Okay.
13:25It's done.
13:31That's getting pretty smooth, Roger.
13:33It looks good, Roger.
13:36There we go.
13:38By God.
13:39Well, one of the real vexing questions, Roger, is after you've polished it down, how do you
13:44inscribe these hieroglyphs with such nice detail?
13:48These are inscribed rather deeply, about almost an inch or so.
13:53That's a good question.
13:54I mean, the detail on these is so fine and so crisp, even after such a long period of
14:00time.
14:01Well, you've worked granite for many years.
14:02Yeah.
14:03And you use steel, too.
14:04Even with modern tools and, you know, diamond wheels and all that, we would have, you know,
14:08we would have a tough time getting it to this kind of perfection.
14:12My idea is you can begin to rough out big hieroglyphs like this with pounders.
14:22What you see here, I've done in only one hour.
14:26I've roughed out the hieroglyph using a larger dolerite pounder stone, and then I've come
14:30in with smaller fragments of dolerite to tap, to begin to tap out the nice edges and the
14:35finer detail.
14:37One tantalizing bit of evidence this is the way the ancient Egyptians did it is a rare
14:42scene in an Egyptian tomb where craftsmen are putting the final touches on a granite
14:46statue.
14:47They seem to be sanding in the fine detail like the eyebrows and the eyelids with pieces
14:53of quartzite and sandstone, such as we know that they had.
14:57They also seem to be tapping out smaller detail with hammer stones, even using stones almost
15:02like a chisel with another stone as a kind of tapper to tap in the very finest elements
15:09in this hard granite statue.
15:12I'm convinced that with their skill and their rapport with the stone and a great deal of
15:17time and patience, that this is the way they carved the fine details like the hieroglyphs
15:22on the obelisks.
15:33Although Ramses the Great would have regarded the 40-ton Nova obelisk as relatively small,
15:38it's nevertheless beginning to get Roger and company rattled.
15:49So while Mr. Hamada struggles to load it on the sled, Martin Eisler decides to get in
15:55some much-needed practice with a much smaller two-ton model.
16:03Today is the first time Martin and Ali El-Ghassab are on the job together, and things are a
16:08little tense.
16:09Put something underneath it and then lay it down.
16:10Tell him to put something.
16:11You've got to tip the sled right up and bust the end.
16:25Ali's first job is to teach the men how to pull the obelisk over land.
16:29Yeah, he's going to tie it on.
16:32I don't know exactly how he's going to do it.
16:37He's got it in his mind.
16:38I think we're in agreement here.
16:44Ali's not very happy with his greenhorn crew.
16:59Martin, you look flabbergasted.
17:16I have never seen the like of this, and I'm really quite upset because these guys are
17:20either going to bust the obelisk or they're going to get hurt.
17:26I don't think they've ever done this before.
17:27Well, let's see how they do in another couple more hayah hopes.
17:39In ancient times, the obelisk builders had a short haul over land and then a much longer
17:44voyage to the great temple complexes downriver.
17:58It was the Nile that made Egyptian civilization possible as an artery that linked the entire
18:02length of the country.
18:07And it was the Nile that made it possible for the ancient Egyptians to quarry colossal statues
18:12and giant obelisks.
18:14It would have been much more difficult if they had had to transport this by land.
18:28But here at Aswan, the quarries are all located within close proximity to the Nile so that
18:32they could be slipped down to the river, loaded on a barge, and transported for the difficult
18:38journey to Luxor, where the giant temples to Amun-Ra are located, or even further, all
18:43the way to Tanis, as far as 700 miles to the north.
18:48But first, you had to solve the very tricky problem of loading the boat.
18:53Okay, so let's imagine that this is a 100-foot obelisk weighing 440 tons, and this is our
19:01barge.
19:02How do we load it up, Cheryl?
19:03Cheryl Haldane, a nautical archaeologist, has a theory how heavy obelisks were loaded
19:08onto ancient Egyptian boats.
19:12We're carrying the boat in and pretty much packing it in place with earth.
19:18If you're down on river level here, you've got the water coming in underneath it.
19:22It's going to be squishier than hell.
19:23You know, we're talking about 400 tons in a boat that's virtually laying in mud.
19:29But your boat is a massive construction in its own right.
19:31The freight barge that was built to carry the obelisks would have carried a modern 747
19:36loaded with 40 elephants.
19:38What I'm curious is when you have, I don't know how many guys, 100 guys pulling on this
19:43440-ton obelisk, bringing it down to the barge.
19:47So they walk onto the barge, some of them, to pull it up there.
19:50Where do they go from there?
19:52Well, I think that we can imagine them going out into the river, some of them.
19:56Man, I used to surf a lot, and it's hard enough walking in the shore.
19:59Oh, I mean...
20:00My lung strength.
20:01But pulling a line out there?
20:02Forget it.
20:03What about this mushiness?
20:04Is that really a problem?
20:05Well, the reality in ancient Egypt, every time it flooded, it inundated the Nile banks
20:11with silt.
20:12There would have been a lot muddier riverbed back then than there is now.
20:17But not after the dry season, not at the end of the dry season.
20:22Well, what happens anyway then?
20:24You take away the cofferdam or the packing in front.
20:28Yeah.
20:29When the obelisk is secured down, then the earth around it can be removed.
20:36And it would be removed perhaps in this way, from the back towards the front,
20:43so that when the water comes in, the boat can begin to float.
20:50And it would have taken a lot of people, and they would have been working very hard,
20:55but I think moving earth is one of the...
20:57Oh, moving earth like that?
20:59That's no problem for them.
21:00Yes.
21:01Here comes the water.
21:03And now you're stuck on the sand.
21:05Now I'm stuck on the sand because I haven't finished excavating.
21:10You know, you're missing the great aspect of hydraulics and navigation
21:17by landlocking your boat and all that.
21:21There's no mechanical advantage.
21:23I think when you remove the dam, if the boat had been a little lower...
21:27Now, Cheryl, in modern times, do they ever load a boat in dry dock?
21:32Never.
21:34I rest my case.
21:35Well, Roger, we'll have to see what your method does.
21:40Probably what they did is they built two stone piers, one here, one here.
21:47They had a nice channel that came in between them.
21:50These were permanent structures.
21:52They had a nice, flat...
21:55Now, try to imagine this is a nice, flat, even surface on which to pull the sled down.
22:01They would have gotten it down to here, probably on rollers.
22:08Now, I'm just going to use two beams, but they probably could have used several.
22:12They could have slid right over into the middle.
22:16Next, your boat comes in.
22:20And, of course, see, it's not low enough.
22:23All you do is you add a little ballast to it, nice and evenly.
22:27Now that Roger has to go public with his theory,
22:30problems with the model barge begin to handicap his demonstration.
22:34Once you start to take ballast off, boy, this thing is leaking like a son of a gun.
22:39Well, this is exactly the kind of problem you would have on a boat.
22:43Well, this is exactly the kind of problem you would have with an ancient Egyptian boat
22:46because they weren't built to have loads down in the hull.
22:50Freight boats were built to carry their weights on the deck.
22:54The ballast would come out, and then it would float this.
22:59They would, of course, position it, and then it would float out
23:05without the aid of all this water.
23:09And once you got out there, it would probably sink like that.
23:18Understanding how the ancient Egyptians transported their huge obelisks is difficult.
23:24Their technique for building boats was unique and is now a long-forgotten art.
23:29No remains of an obelisk barge have been found.
23:34The only evidence we have was left by the pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut.
23:40On her magnificent mortuary temple at Deir el-Bari,
23:44there is a picture of a boat carrying a pair of obelisks on deck,
23:49perhaps to the great temple at Karnak.
23:54Hatshepsut's reign was a period of great architectural and artistic flowering.
24:00Only the third woman to rule as queen, she also ruled as king,
24:06often appearing in portraits with a pharaonic beard.
24:14She co-ruled with her stepson, Thutmose III,
24:19but after she died, he systematically hacked out all references to her,
24:24even hiding her obelisk behind a sandstone wall
24:27that just left the gold-plated tip exposed.
24:33On the base of her obelisk, an inscription proudly states
24:37that it was built in the remarkably short time of the reign of the pharaoh.
24:42On the base of her obelisk, an inscription proudly states
24:46that it was built in the remarkably short time of seven months.
24:58Back at the quarry, the work is not up to Queen Hatshepsut's standards.
25:04Shaping the 40-foot obelisk is taking much longer than anticipated,
25:08even with modern tools.
25:11This means that Roger will only have a few days to raise the obelisk,
25:15and as yet, there is no consensus among the experts about how to do it.
25:26On the opposite bank of the Nile,
25:28Martin Eisler is about to test out his method on the little nine-foot model.
25:37You have to do it exactly like Martin says.
25:42Although he has no formal training in archaeology,
25:45Martin has developed a passion for ancient technology.
25:49Martin and Ali have bonded nicely.
25:57In preparation for raising the obelisk,
26:00Martin has carved a groove on top of the base stone.
26:05He's convinced that this notch is an essential component of obelisk engineering.
26:12But does every ancient pedestal stone have a groove?
26:16To find out, Mark and Roger travel to Tanis,
26:19a major city during the final years of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
26:25Filled with monuments recycled from earlier dynasties,
26:29Tanis is an obelisk graveyard.
26:33There are 23 broken obelisks at this site.
26:37This is another one of these Ramses obelisks toppled over.
26:45This looks like a pretty good example of a turning groove to me.
26:49It's about a foot wide, which is 30 centimeters,
26:54but a little more than half again is deep.
26:59Well, I can't see how this is just a symbolic feature.
27:02I mean, this has got to be integral to raising an obelisk.
27:06Somehow this was necessary to have this groove in here.
27:11Everywhere they look, there are turning grooves.
27:16It seems that Martin is on to something.
27:20As Ali's men lever up the obelisk,
27:23the bottom edge remains engaged in the notch.
27:27Without the turning groove to pivot on,
27:30the butt of the obelisk would slide off the pedestal stone.
27:38Martin believes that the turning groove
27:41is the key to the obelisk's stability.
27:46Martin believes that levering
27:49was the principal technique used by the ancient Egyptians.
27:54To support the rising obelisk,
27:57stone and earth are packed beneath it.
28:01Well, I mean, as you lever the obelisk up,
28:04you only get just a little, an inch or so.
28:07You could lever anything up if the lever is long enough.
28:11But what if it was a 400-ton obelisk or a 300-ton obelisk?
28:15Then we'd be much more careful.
28:17You're getting your lever underneath,
28:19and you're getting about, what, a couple inches of lift?
28:22Whatever.
28:23Each heya hopa gives you a few inches of lift.
28:26Whatever, but each little few inches of lift adds up.
28:30When the obelisk reaches a 45-degree angle,
28:33Ali calls a halt to the levering.
28:36The rest of the work will be done by the pulling team.
28:40Ho!
28:43Okay, everybody, say ho!
28:46Ho!
28:49The 2-ton needle rises with remarkable ease.
28:56But will it be so simple with Roger's 40-ton obelisk?
29:04Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
29:08Well, it was a very small piece of stone.
29:11I put stuff up that size by myself.
29:13Well, I did, too. I know.
29:15But, you know, the reservation I have,
29:18when you're dealing with a 300- or a 400-ton,
29:22how are you going to space out your levers?
29:24How many levers are you going to use?
29:26What size levers?
29:28How many men can you get in a crowded area like that?
29:31This is something you learn by experience, don't you?
29:34So you'll start, perhaps, with a 2-tonner, as we did here,
29:38graduate to a 10-tonner, learn from that, go to a 20-tonner...
29:42Despite Martin's success,
29:44Roger doesn't want to use levers to raise his obelisk.
29:51Back at the quarry, he has only four days to get the obelisk up.
29:56A lot of dirt is being moved around,
29:58but no one seems to know exactly what Roger has in mind.
30:03To clear the air, Roger has been forced to build a model
30:07to demonstrate his method to quarry owner Mr. Hamada.
30:10A lot of weight to pull.
30:13We have our ramp coming up onto a more level area,
30:18and as the sled comes along...
30:20The pedestal lies at the bottom of a large pit,
30:23which will be filled with sand.
30:26The obelisk is then dragged over the pit.
30:29So it reaches along this ridge here,
30:32a pivot point with a center of gravity,
30:35and it will come down slowly.
30:38As the sand is removed,
30:40the butt of the obelisk should slowly descend to the pedestal stone.
30:44At least, that's the theory.
30:46When do you start lowering the sand?
30:48When do you start letting the sand out?
30:50Once we get this in place.
30:52I've calculated the center of gravity
30:54is approximately here on the obelisk.
30:56All right, now let it come out fairly slowly.
30:59Fairly slowly.
31:01We're going to see that thing tipping.
31:03I think it's better to go more fast.
31:06You think it's better to go fast?
31:08Yes, because to not give a chance
31:11for the sudden force to make the obelisk go right.
31:15So a regular, very steady motion.
31:18Yes.
31:20All right, so we're kind of...
31:22The people in this case stay here,
31:24and they push from this side.
31:25Look, look, look, look.
31:27So you have men in there pushing the sand.
31:29Mr. Hamada is worried that the men removing sand
31:31from the bottom of the pit
31:33may be injured by the descending obelisk.
31:35Because rogers have one aim,
31:37to fix the obelisk with a good position.
31:40Yes, Roger, you can be very single-minded.
31:42I understand, Hamada.
31:44I have experience with this man. I know what you mean.
31:46Yes, I have no value in human life.
31:48But for me, I hope to fix the obelisk with a good position.
31:53But number one, this is number two.
31:55Number one for me, the safety of our people.
31:59And I think the ancient Egyptians worked by the same method.
32:03Worked by the same method.
32:05Don't you worry, Hamada.
32:06I'm going to be down in that pit.
32:08I'm going to be down in that pit, so you'll be safe.
32:11Ready for it?
32:12To put Mr. Hamada's fears to rest,
32:14Roger has to prepare another demonstration of his method,
32:17this time with the two-ton obelisk.
32:20You're going to fill this box up with clean sand.
32:23Yeah, I got to do a little housekeeping here.
32:25You're going to put the obelisk up here
32:27and tip it over onto the sand
32:29and then scoop the sand out these tunnels.
32:31Right.
32:32We're taking the sand out from behind it,
32:34so it has to fall back.
32:36And actually, the sand that's piled up here
32:38is going to act as somewhat of a weight, keep it in place.
32:42But then it's going to reach a point where we have to get in
32:45and control its movement,
32:47whether it's forward or backward or off to the sides.
32:51And as you take the sand out, the obelisk is going to flow down
32:55and fit right down into that turning groove.
32:57Exactly.
33:01I think it's ridiculous.
33:03It's just crazy to be thinking of putting this monster
33:10into a pit blindly
33:13and expecting to find a groove magically somehow
33:17by pushing sand away from one side to the other.
33:23I can't conceive of it happening.
33:26And if it does, it's still crazy.
33:29It's impossible to me.
33:31At the lap.
33:35Shed its wire.
33:40Christ!
33:43Very good. Come on.
33:46You got that obelisk where you want it, Roger?
33:49Yeah. I mean, we're within an inch or two of dead on.
33:53You've cocked your gun.
33:54Right.
33:55You're ready to shoot.
33:57Don't get in my line of sight.
33:59I'll try to stay out of it.
34:02Okay! Open!
34:06With the mud bricks removed from the doors
34:09at the bottom of the sand pit, there's no turning back.
34:13They're all out.
34:14They're all out?
34:23Here comes the sand.
34:25It can afford to come forward some.
34:28We got about 20 centimeters for it to come forward.
34:31Okay. They're moving.
34:37I think, don't you need more out of this side
34:39so it goes down and bends back this way?
34:41I'm trying to get it to slide over this way.
34:49After a promising start,
34:51the sand, filled with rocks and debris, flows unevenly.
34:56The descending obelisk is no longer on course
34:59to hit the turning groove.
35:01We got a problem with this channel not clearing itself.
35:05Now, Roger, if this were a big one,
35:07it may be a bad time to ask,
35:09but you'd have room for men in there, right?
35:12Huh?
35:13If it were this full size, you'd have men inside there.
35:16Yeah, they'd be volunteers, right, Roger?
35:21I'm glad we're doing it.
35:23I'd like to lay this to rest once and for all
35:26and be done with the sand business.
35:28Yeah, but do you think just one experiment is going to be enough?
35:32No, it's not enough, but the whole concept is ridiculous.
35:35I'm sorry, Roger.
35:36Ridiculous?
35:37Nothing personal.
35:41As time slips away,
35:43Roger is just about ready to give up on the sandpit method.
35:58A final attempt to remove sand from below the obelisk
36:02suddenly pays off.
36:05When the dust settles, there's a pleasant surprise for Roger.
36:09I hate to tell you this, Mark,
36:11but we're right over the turning groove.
36:14You're right over the turning groove?
36:16Right.
36:18Roger hasn't scored a bullseye.
36:21The obelisk is a bit off-center,
36:23but he hopes it can be lined up with the turning groove
36:26when Ali and his men pull it upright.
36:35Although Roger finally gets the obelisk up,
36:39he hasn't won over any of his critics.
36:42There's no way that they went down to that turning groove blind.
36:46The turning groove tells the story
36:48that the obelisk was carefully parked there
36:51before it was set up,
36:53and they wouldn't have just gone down to it blind
36:56by pouring sand out of a tunnel.
36:58I thought it was a fairly messy, complicated operation.
37:01I don't think that's how they erected the giant obelisks.
37:23The next morning sees a flurry of activity at Mr. Hamada's quarry.
37:31Unfortunately, none of it is helping Roger get the 40-ton obelisk up.
37:39Apparently, Mr. Hamada is expecting a visit from the governor,
37:43at which he plans to unveil his method for raising the obelisk.
38:01The sand, there is a channel under this room.
38:04The Hamada method uses a massive block of stone as a counterweight.
38:09It's ancient Egyptian, of course, not usual.
38:12Yes.
38:13When sand is released from below the block,
38:16it descends, pulling the obelisk up.
38:20Although Mr. Hamada's no-hands self-raising model
38:23appears to impress the governor,
38:26no one is really sure how the obelisk will be raised.
38:29Although Mr. Hamada's no-hands, self-raising model appears to impress the governor, no
38:49one else believes that starting all over and constructing a massive counterweight is a
38:54practical way to use the remaining two days.
38:59Ali came to the project without any pet theories, but now he has come up with a solution that
39:05he believes could raise the obelisk with just a few modifications to Rogers' half-constructed
39:10sandpit.
39:11It involves building a ramp down to the pedestal stone, then gently lowering the obelisk on
39:19a sled restrained by three ropes.
39:28Ensuring that the butt of the obelisk finds the turning groove is crucial.
39:36Once the obelisk is in the groove, it will be raised and stabilized by six teams of men
39:41on ropes attached to the top of the shaft.
39:44You're seeking the groove in the most, it's crazy.
39:54Why can't it go down the guide walls?
39:55If we put in Rogers' guide walls.
39:58It doesn't matter if you could walk it over to the groove and place it there.
40:02There's all sorts of things that can be done.
40:04Well, unfortunately, Martin, given our change in plan here, given this dramatic change in
40:09plan and the tension of only two days left, we have to deal with this big compartment
40:14that we've created, which we were going to use for the sandbox, but now we have a 30-degree
40:19ramp.
40:20I wish you luck.
40:21Do you think we're in for a hard time?
40:23I think so, yes.
40:33The obelisk hasn't been moved since it was positioned on the sled a couple of days ago.
40:39The dead weight has begun to crush the rollers, and it refuses to budge.
40:43We're trying to make the stone move, the obstinate, dumb stone hasn't budged an inch.
40:49It's moving, it's moving.
41:10Ali has 200 men on the ropes.
41:19At 40 tons, this obelisk weighs less than a tenth of the biggest obelisks of ancient
41:25times.
41:26Today, it would require 2,000 pullers or more.
41:51With their enthusiasm to bring it to the top of the chute, the pullers almost derail
41:56the obelisk.
41:57Ali is not pleased.
42:02But a quick nudge with a lever gets the obelisk back on track.
42:16Finally, after seven hours of pulling, the obelisk is poised at the top of the chute.
42:26Tomorrow, it's do or die.
42:45The next morning, the last of the project, there is an air of great anticipation among
43:01the pullers.
43:03Will they be the first people in 3,000 years to raise an obelisk using the tools of their
43:10ancient ancestors?
43:12Well, we're right here at the pivot point, and there's a good possibility that the obelisk
43:17could get out of control, crash down the slipway, and break into pieces.
43:21That wouldn't be a total tragedy for us, but can you imagine if it was Hatshepsut's obelisk?
43:26She had spent seven months coring it.
43:29Consider all the elbow grease, blood, sweat, and tears that had been spent adorning it
43:34with hieroglyphs, polishing it so that it reflected the sun.
43:38If that finished obelisk, weighing 330 tons, was it now at this pivot point, and crashed
43:44down and broke into pieces, it would be a tragedy indeed.
43:55With the turning groove in his sights at the bottom of the chute, Ali is ready to launch
44:00the obelisk.
44:08The obelisk is teetering dangerously at its center of gravity.
44:22Ali now has to get the attention of the brakemen who will control its descent.
44:28Communication is proving difficult, as Hasham, the man he has put in charge, is quite deaf,
44:34and so is unaware of the urgency of the moment.
45:05Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali!
45:11Ali, are you happy?
45:13He's very, very happy.
45:15But he's worried now.
45:17His obelisk is sliding as we speak.
45:20You hear noises.
45:21There it goes.
45:22And he wants to tend to his job.
45:26Now, everything is in the hands of the brakemen.
45:40Their job is to control the three ropes that keep the obelisk from smashing into the pedestal stone.
45:46Come on.
45:51Granite is brittle and will break if not seated gently.
45:57Can the brakemen control the obelisk, or will gravity have its way?
46:03Let's go! Let's go!
46:06Let's go! Let's go!
46:09Let's go! Let's go!
46:12Let's go! Let's go!
46:15Let's go! Let's go!
46:19Let's go! Let's go!
46:22Well, obviously it was a great relief, great celebration, but maybe celebrating a little too soon,
46:26because the butt end missed the turning groove,
46:30and now we have the tremendous task of raising it up from this angle of recline.
46:34No, we didn't miss the turning groove.
46:36They haven't released it off the sled yet.
46:38Once it's released off the sled, very easily it'll come right into the turning groove.
46:43So you think it'll slide right in there?
46:45Yeah.
46:46When they cut the sled off?
46:47Yeah.
46:48Look at it!
46:49Let's go!
46:51Let's go!
47:08Despite the celebration, the job ahead is enormous,
47:12to raise the obelisk from the 32 degree angle from which it now rests in the few hours remaining.
47:19Let's do it!
47:24Like Martin Eisler, Ali is going to use large levers as the primary method.
47:43Things get off to a good start.
47:46The two levers quickly raise the obelisk from an angle of 32 degrees to close to 40 degrees.
47:53But as the obelisk rises, it becomes difficult to get leverage.
48:00With time running out, Ali orders 200 pullers to try and speed the process.
48:07But it doesn't seem to help.
48:10Well, the problem Ali's having now is he's not getting any lift out of his pull.
48:20All the men pulling on the long ropes are simply pulling the butt end of the obelisk down into the turning groove.
48:25You can almost feel it grinding down in there.
48:29The only thing that's giving Ali any lift whatsoever are the men on the levers.
48:33But as you can see, the levers now, in order to get advantage, are really high.
48:38The men can hardly reach them.
48:41They're throwing ropes up around the end to get some kind of pull.
48:46The men are trying to get the obelisk up, but they can't get it.
48:51The men are trying to get the obelisk up, but they can't get it.
48:54They're throwing ropes up around the end to get some kind of pull.
49:13In the next six hours, they only manage to raise the obelisk a couple of inches.
49:17But Ali's not ready to throw in the towel yet.
49:21Everyone decides it's worth giving it just one more day.
49:34The final morning finds Ali racking his brains at the stuck obelisk.
49:40Roger got up early, too. He's already been busy.
49:46This is an A-frame. It works as a lever.
49:51You run your ropes, your pulling ropes, over the top of it,
49:54and it helps redirect the force so that you're pulling up rather than pulling down.
50:00Your ropes are going from the obelisk up over the A-frame and down
50:04to increase the pull and gain some mechanical advantage.
50:07Right.
50:08Well, I can see your point, but you know, Ali doesn't think this is going to work at all.
50:12Well, you know, at some point, you've got to take over.
50:21Pull!
50:28In theory, the A-frame seems to be the way to go,
50:32but the obelisk still refuses to budge.
50:37The men on the A-frame ropes cannot pull efficiently,
50:41because the ropes are too high.
50:47So, in order to use the A-frame, as Roger suggests,
50:51we would have to both raise and lengthen our ramp
50:54so that the men had a platform to stand on
50:57and still reach the ropes in a long train of pullers as we have now.
51:05Modifications will take time, and time is a commodity that has run out.
51:11Like any construction project, this one has a deadline.
51:21The men are working well.
51:23The real problem is we don't have time.
51:25How many days and nights have I thought how to raise the obelisk more quickly?
51:29My God, my brains are splitting.
51:32But a heavy object like this takes time.
51:35You can't rush an obelisk.
51:46I think this is what the ancient technology comes down to.
51:50Men like Ali, with their skill and the enthusiasm of their men,
51:55is probably the most important secret ingredient in all ancient technology.
52:08But even with all their enthusiasm and skill,
52:11our modern team cannot overcome the limitation of time.
52:16The ancient Egyptians faced no such constraints
52:20as they raised obelisks for pharaohs
52:22whose concept of time was totally different from ours.
52:33After all, what's the rush when you're building for eternity?
52:46The Age of Pyramids
53:02Now you can tour the pyramids at Giza your way
53:04using the latest online technology.
53:07At NOVA's website, navigate the tunnels, tombs and temples of the pharaohs
53:11and follow a real-time excavation.
53:15Log on for Pyramids, the Inside Story, a NOVA PBS online adventure.
53:37To order NOVA's Secrets of Lost Empires miniseries on videocassette,
53:42call 1-800-255-9424.
53:45This five-hour set is $69.95 plus shipping and handling.
53:49Individual programs are also available for $19.95 each.
53:55Next time on NOVA, a palace of spectacle and gore.
53:59But did you know it had a roof?
54:01Colosseum on Secrets of Lost Empires.
54:07NOVA is a production of WGBH Boston.
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