Moving the Obelisks:: A Chapter in Engineering History in which the Vatican Obelisk in Rome in 1586 was Moved by Muscle Power

By Bern Dibner

Dating from the beginning of historical memory, the obelisks of ancient Egypt—those tall, tapering shafts typically weighing from 200 to 500 tons—were carved from a single block of solid stone to commemorate the ruler of the moment.

Many of these ancient monoliths, taken from Egypt as trophies of conquest and symbols of power through the efforts of extraordinary human labor and engineering ingenuity, were re-established in the capitals and seats of empire that also inherited Egypt’s burden of civilization. While near the climax of their historical potency, obelisks were erected by Alexandria, Nineveh, Constantinople, Rome, Paris, London, New York, etc.

Fascinating as obelisks are as tracers of world history, the methods by which they have been moved and raised from ca. B.C. 1500 to A.D. 1880 (when the New York obelisk was raised) are more interesting still, and this epic history and associated engineering feats are encapsulated in this volume.

The book records information, as far as we have it, on the building of the pyramids and the moving of the obelisks, together with various conjectures. What is certain is that the obelisks were moved great distances by man power alone. We do have a full record of the moving of the Vatican obelisk in 1586 from several contemporary accounts, most especially that of the project’s deviser and chief engineer, Domenico Fontana, and this move is the central concern of the book: it details how Fontana, with the enthusiastic backing of Pope Sixtus V, solved the problem by utilizing 48 capstans spread over what is now St. Peter’s Square, turned by the combined muscle power of men and horses.

Full accounts are also given of the Paris, London, and New York obelisks. Of particular interest here are the various methods—including a pontoon built around a prone obelisk—by which the monoliths were transported on the high seas.

Contemporary engravings are reproduced throughout.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Jun 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787204812

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Text originally published in 1950 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

MOVING THE OBELISKS:

A Chapter in Engineering History in which the Vatican Obelisk in Rome in 1586 was Moved by Muscle Power, and a Study of More Recent Moves

BY

BERN DIBNER

MOVING THE OBELISKS

A chapter in engineering history in which the Vatican obelisk in Rome in 1586 was moved by muscle power, and a study of more recent similar moves.

By

BERN DIBNER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

DEDICATION 5

MOVING THE OBELISKS 7

Egyptian Engineering 8

The Obelisk 13

The Roman Period 18

Obelisks in Rome 21

The Vatican Obelisk 21

Acque alle Funi! 34

The Obelisk is Lowered 35

Moving and Raising the Obelisk 41

Modern Transportation of Obelisks 47

The New York Obelisk 47

The London Obelisk 56

The Paris Obelisk 62

BIBLIOGRAPHY 68

DEDICATION

To the memory of

BENJAMIN HALPRIN

Civil Engineer, Captain of Ordnance

Legion of Merit

MOVING THE OBELISKS

IN the middle of Central Park in New York stands a tall stone on a quiet, wooded knoll. It has stood here for 70 years and in this time has witnessed the neighboring streets swell in activity from suburban quiet into the busiest thorofares of all time. It has watched great buildings grow from the ground and it has been dwarfed by their eminence and bulk. It can, in all truth, say: I have witnessed this great change in only one-fiftieth of my existence, for in my youth in Egypt I have had Moses look upon my face, and Joseph has paused within my shadow. I have seen a great city, as great as yours, burn and disappear and I have stood near the sea for 2000 years to witness another great city blossom and die. Be not proud, for I shall exist when all this brick and steel about me has crumbled into dust!

This stone and others like it have been quarried, cut, engraved and erected by men for reasons of interest to us. They have been chiseled, raised, lowered and moved again by methods revealing to our engineers. Let him who can pause in his busy day to see what others have done, read further.

(Left): Frontispiece of Fontana’s book on the transportation of the Vatican obelisk, published in Rome in 1590. This engraving shows the engineer-architect at age 46, shortly after his triumph. He holds a model of the obelisk and wears the insignia of his knighthood.

THE OBELISK was one of the three forms of monuments that evolved during the long history of the Egyptian state and religion, the other two being the sphinx and the pyramid. The form of the obelisk changed comparatively little in the two thousand years in which it was cut and mounted. Being monolithic in construction and tall and attractive in form, it still was not too massive to be moved by those who coveted its possession. The 200 to 500 ton shaft therefore became an item to be marked by the victorious invader and a challenge to his engineer to remove such a handsome trophy from Egypt and to have it set up in some distant land. That is why these superbly carved granite shafts, intended for some Nile necropolis or to adorn some temple, can be seen today, after three or four thousand years, as a trophy in Rome, or as a gift in London, Paris or New York. These ancient monuments are symbols not only of a religion no longer practiced, inscribed in a language unknown for the last thousand years, but also a challenge to the ability and ingenuity of the mason and the engineer right up to our own day. It must be noted that altho’ there are more than two score of obelisks and fragments still in existence{1} as evidence of the original craftsmanship, it still is a subject of high speculation as to how these great stones were shaped, moved and erected by men who had only the most primitive mechanical aids and no mechanical power as we know it today. Within the last century, three obelisks were moved from Egypt to the north and the west. These were one from Luxor in Egypt to Paris in 1836, one from Alexandria to London in 1877 and one from Alexandria to New York in 1880. Even tho’ steam engines, hydraulic jacks, steel cables and steel structural members were at their disposal, the mere moving and erecting of each of these obelisks became, to modern engineers, a major project of international interest and concern. Not only did the Egyptian engineers not have such modern aids but the cutting and finishing of the hard granite, its transportation over hundreds of miles, and its erecting, were accomplished by these ancients with a modesty that has kept such deeds from being adequately recorded. Whereas there exist thousands of sculptures, has-reliefs, gems, paintings, papyri and models of the religious, regal and domestic life of the Egyptians, their advanced technology is illustrated by extremely few known examples. We must therefore reconstruct their tools and methods from the results they achieved.

Excluding the moving and erecting of the three obelisks that were transported in the last century, we are fortunate to have clear records of the mechanics used in the moving and erection of the Vatican obelisk in 1586. Unlike the former, in which modern mechanical aids were used, the obelisk standing today in the Piazza of St. Peter’s, Rome, was moved by means that must have, in some measure, resembled those used by the Roman engineers, if not by the Egyptians themselves.

Egyptian Engineering

IN THE SPAN of 3500 years in which Egyptian civilization flourished, it was able to develop and support masons and engineers having highly developed mechanical skills and very high standards of perfection. There are today graven in stone or written upon linen and papyri, records of astronomical and mathematical computations, chemical, pharmaceutical and technological processes that must have involved guild practices and the maintenance