for the study of the history of engineering and technology |
(This page is best viewed printed on paper).
The paper entitled "Roman Methods of Transporting and Erecting Obelisks" by Dr M J T Lewis, is published in the Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1984-85 Vol 56.
The author introduces us to the subject by explaining how obelisks were first raised by the Egyptians around 2400 BC as symbols of the sun gods. The largest ones, almost always in pairs, were erected in front of the temples in the great cult centres of Egypt. The largest known obelisk lies unfinished in the quarry at Aswan, abandoned because the rock was found to be fissured. It would have been 137ft high and weighed 1168 tons. "To move and raise it - and even its smaller brethren - must have posed monstrous problems of engineering and logistics".
After the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30BC, new obelisks were made, or ancient ones removed to places like the Forum or the Circus, and we are told that at least 64 were moved by the Romans - of which 16 were over 30ft high. The author points out that although there is an extensive literature on which obelisks were moved where and when, there had been virtually no investigation into how the Romans transported them and how they were raised, which is surprising, given the scale of the engineering involved.
 |
Hippodrome obelisk in Constantinople © This drawing taken from the relief on the pedestal provides clues as to how it was transported. |
We are given an account from Pliny on the transporting of the Vatican obelisk in about AD 50:
"A particularly wonderful fir was seen in the ship which brought from Egypt at the command of the emperor Gaius [Caligula] the obelisk set up in the Vatican Circus and the four blocks of the same stone to serve as its pedestal. It is certain that nothing more wonderful than this ship has been seen at sea. It had 120,000 modii of lentils for ballast; its length occupied a large part of the left side of the harbour of Ostia, for under the emperor Claudius it was sunk there with three great structures as high as towers built on it, made for the purpose of Pozzuoli cement and brought to Ostia. It took four men to encircle the girth of this tree with their arms."
Dr Lewis provides descriptions of the raising of many of these obelisks, together with a number of fascinating illustrations. Here, and rather later, Cleopatra's Needle is shown being raised in London's Embankment, in a drawing from the Illustrated London News, 1878. In the bottom picture the shaft is seen jacked up horizontally and the pedestal built underneath; top right, the obelisk is swung on its truncheons; and top centre, once vertical, it is being lowered onto its pedestal.
The author concludes:
"For the Romans to have moved these sixteen monstrous lumps of stone and raised them at least twenty times with only one known mishap was a remarkable achievement. The modern world has equipment capable of handling such giants, in the form of low-loaders with hundreds of wheels, semi-submersible barges, and 4000-ton cranes. But this kind of technology has evolved only in the last twenty years or so, engendered partly by the needs of North Sea oil. Back in 1586, Fontana's exploit (the Vatican obelisk) was a nine days' wonder; the Paris obelisk took five years to move; a century ago there were immense difficulties in transporting Cleopatra's Needles, and when the New York obelisk was being lowered, ropes snapped and the shaft nearly broke. All these latterday enterprises, at one point or another, hovered on the brink of disaster. Yet in the Roman Empire the transport and erection of obelisks has been described as 'a notable but far from exceptional event'. This is typical of the Romans. They thought big and built big; and above all they organised with the greatest efficiency and the minimum of fuss. They were remarkably accomplished engineers."
The complete text of this paper can be purchased on line from our archive.
Transactions page
Back to the top