How ancient Egyptians Were cutting the Obelisk from the Granite quarry?

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Today, quarrymen cut and carve granite using saws with diamond-edged blades and steel chisels.

But ancient Egyptian quarrymen and stonemasons didn't have these modern tools. How, then, did they quarry and cut such clean lines in their obelisks and other monumental statuary?
 
To find out how ancient Egyptians quarried huge pieces of granite for their obelisks, i traveled to an ancient quarry in Aswan, located 500 miles south of Cairo. This is where the ancient Egyptians found many of the huge granite stones they used for their monuments and statues.

One of the most famous stones left behind is the Unfinished Obelisk, more than twice the size of any known obelisk ever raised. Quarrymen apparently abandoned the obelisk when fractures appeared in its sides. However, the stone, still attached to bedrock, gives important clues to how the ancients quarried granite.


Archeologist Mark Lehner, a key member of nova expedition, crouches in a granite trench that abuts one side of the Unfinished Obelisk. Lehner holds a piece of dolerite similar to the kind that he and others believe Egyptian quarrymen used to pound out the trench around the edges of the obelisk. They then lifted the pulverized granite dust out of the trenches with baskets. Evidence also exists that workers pounded underneath the obelisk until the monument rested on a thin spine.

Lehner says that huge levers were probably used to snap the obelisk from its spine, freeing it so it could be carved more finely and transported.
Archeologists know that the ancient Egyptians had the skills to forge bronze and copper tools. Stonemason Roger Hopkins takes up a copper chisel, which works well when carving sandstone and limestone rock, to see if it might carve granite.

"We're losing a lot of metal and very little stone is falling off," observes Hopkins, which is hardly the desired result. Hopkins' simple experiment makes this much clear: The Egyptians needed better tools than soft bronze and copper chisels to carve granite.
As a young man, Denys Stocks was obsessed with the Egyptians. For the past 20 years, this ancient-tools specialist has been recreating tools the Egyptians might have used. He believes Egyptians were able to cut and carve granite by adding a dash of one of Egypt's most common materials: sand.

"We're going to put sand inside the groove and we're going to put the saw on top of the sand," Stocks says. "Then we're going to let the sand do the cutting."

It does. The weight of the copper saw rubs the sand crystals, which are as hard as granite, against the stone. A groove soon appears in the granite. It's clear that this technique works well and could have been used by the ancient Egyptians


Hopkins' experience working with stone leads him to believe that one more ingredient, even more basic than sand, will improve the efficiency of the granite cutting: water. Water, Hopkins argues, will wash away dust that acts as a buffer to the sand, slowing the progress.

Adding water, though, makes it harder to pull the copper saw back and forth. While Hopkins is convinced water improves the speed of work, Stocks' measurements show that the rate of cutting is the same whether water is used or not.
Besides cutting clean surfaces on their granite, the Egyptians also drilled cylindrical holes into their stones. A hole eight inches in diameter was found drilled in a granite block at the Temple of Karnak.

"Even with modern tools—stone chisels and diamond wheels—we would have a tough time doing such fine work in granite," says Hopkins.

Stocks was brought along to test his theories about how the cores were drilled. Inspired by a bow drill seen in an ancient Egyptian wall painting, Stocks designs a home-made bow drill. He wraps rope around a copper pipe that the Egyptians could have forged. Hopkins and Lehner then pull back and forth on the bow, which is weighted from above. The pipe spins in place, rubbing the sand, which etches a circle into the stone. With the assistance of the sand, the turning copper pipe succeeds in cutting a hole into the granite slab.
With the aid of a bow drill and sand, the pipe has cut a circular hole into the stone. But how can the drillers get the central core out?

Stocks wedges two chisels into the circular groove. The core breaks off at its base. Stocks reaches in and plucks it out, leaving a hole behind not unlike the ones once cut by the Egyptians

If you want to visit the Granite Quarry in Aswan where the unfinished Obelisk still laying down in the bed rock please contact us :info@egyptraveluxe.com
Half day tour to the Granite Quarry



Comments

  1. See here https://youtu.be/7-KHRdfV_-Q

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is 100% plagerised from PBS/NOVA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I was at Aswan in 1985 I had begun a collection of rocks from unusual and historic sites - as cheap but extremely fascinating souvenirs. Naturally there was a piece of the pink granite at Aswan. I'd read somewhere that dolerite was imported from upstream Nubia in order to cut the granite. I reasoned that there had to be some lying around. I soon found a lump of dark rock, totally unlike the granite. It was so clearly "allochthonous" that it looked kind of lonely. I decided that this was the dolerite from upstream, quarried there and transported by ancient man to Aswan. What it was actually used for and how it was used are good questions, but it had to have been there for some good reason.
    so there you go. These were some of the first specimens I collected.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Keep it up admin...nice work...i am very happy read this blog post....Sand Casting China

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did you know what happens in Abu Simbel temple twice a year?

    Check: https://dunesbeyond.com/did-you-know-what-happens-in-abu-simbel-temple-twice-a-year/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Egypt literally has hundreds of places, destinations, and discovered ancient places

    Don't hesitate to visit Egypt ever

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ancient Egypt will never stop amazing us with all of the discovered monuments

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Egyptians in the above image are drilling into a piece of wood... I hope your not stating that wood can penetrate into granite.. I can prove that copper and wood have a 0% penetration rate with granite 0.....Coopers metallurgic composition simply makes its impossible. Tell you what..go purchase a small piece of granite and a cooper chisel. Go to your garden and pick-up a rock and start hammering away. I will drop to see how it's going after 10 years. and will observe two guaranteed outcomes You will look like a broken human being. and within the 10yr timeframe an addition 10,000 cooper chisel were provided . with zero outcome

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    Replies
    1. You may need to read the details a bit more. He did mention that the process of using sand. The paragraph is quoted as below:

      Archeologists know that the ancient Egyptians had the skills to forge bronze and copper tools. Stonemason Roger Hopkins takes up a copper chisel, which works well when carving sandstone and limestone rock, to see if it might carve granite.

      "We're losing a lot of metal and very little stone is falling off," observes Hopkins, which is hardly the desired result. Hopkins' simple experiment makes this much clear: The Egyptians needed better tools than soft bronze and copper chisels to carve granite. As a young man, Denys Stocks was obsessed with the Egyptians. For the past 20 years, this ancient-tools specialist has been recreating tools the Egyptians might have used. He believes Egyptians were able to cut and carve granite by adding a dash of one of Egypt's most common materials: sand.

      "We're going to put sand inside the groove and we're going to put the saw on top of the sand," Stocks says. "Then we're going to let the sand do the cutting."

      It does. The weight of the copper saw rubs the sand crystals, which are as hard as granite, against the stone. A groove soon appears in the granite. It's clear that this technique works well and could have been used by the ancient Egyptians

      Hopkins' experience working with stone leads him to believe that one more ingredient, even more basic than sand, will improve the efficiency of the granite cutting: water. Water, Hopkins argues, will wash away dust that acts as a buffer to the sand, slowing the progress.

      Adding water, though, makes it harder to pull the copper saw back and forth. While Hopkins is convinced water improves the speed of work, Stocks' measurements show that the rate of cutting is the same whether water is used or not. Besides cutting clean surfaces on their granite, the Egyptians also drilled cylindrical holes into their stones. A hole eight inches in diameter was found drilled in a granite block at the Temple of Karnak.

      "Even with modern tools—stone chisels and diamond wheels—we would have a tough time doing such fine work in granite," says Hopkins.

      Stocks was brought along to test his theories about how the cores were drilled. Inspired by a bow drill seen in an ancient Egyptian wall painting, Stocks designs a home-made bow drill. He wraps rope around a copper pipe that the Egyptians could have forged. Hopkins and Lehner then pull back and forth on the bow, which is weighted from above. The pipe spins in place, rubbing the sand, which etches a circle into the stone. With the assistance of the sand, the turning copper pipe succeeds in cutting a hole into the granite slab. With the aid of a bow drill and sand, the pipe has cut a circular hole into the stone. But how can the drillers get the central core out?

      Stocks wedges two chisels into the circular groove. The core breaks off at its base. Stocks reaches in and plucks it out, leaving a hole behind not unlike the ones once cut by the Egyptians

      Delete
    2. "Stocks wedges two chisels into the circular groove. The core breaks off at it's base"

      The didn't mention their copper chisels just bent and had to be replaced with steel chisels in order to break the core

      Delete
    3. that method of side wedging to break a core is only one method. I use a simpler one.

      Delete
  10. Using a copper saw with sand and water, is an abrasive. It doesn't cut. Like using an emery type of abrasive. The dynastic egyptians clearly CUT the granite. You can see the cut marks. So drilling or "cutting" using sand only proves that you can make a dent in granite. Abrasives are used mostly for... abrading. Doesn't reproduce or prove what the existing cut granite evidence shows. Archeologists should leave the engineering and stone work up to engineers and people who work with... stone/marble/granite/diorite etc..

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    Replies
    1. The abrasive method shown by Stocks and repeated by others, clearly replicates the toolmarks found in ancient stones. To say otherwise is money in the pocket of the frauds of Alternative History. Like Ben from UnsupportedX whom you quoted.

      Delete
    2. Concentric circles have clearly been shown in the drill holes. Are you suggesting that the drill holes do not have concentric circles or are you suggesting sand can create concentric circles matching the impressive cut rates shown by the egyptions?

      Delete
    3. "Using a copper saw with sand and water, is an abrasive. It doesn't cut."
      Yes it does.. You are a liar.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ZHYWle0DE

      Delete

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