NEW DISCOVERY IN EGYPT.

Shannon News, 6 March 1923, Page 3

NEW DISCOVERY IN EGYPT.

EVIDENCE OF AN AMAZING FEAT OF ENGINEERING. The Egyptian Antiquities Department, acting on the wish of King Fuad, has unearthed an obelisk which has been lying in a granite bed at Aswan, Upper Egypt, for centuries, half covered with debris. The result is startling, as it. reveals a mammoth block of granite 133 feet long, 14 feet wide at the base, and eight feet at the most slender end. It would have weighed 1168 tons when removed. It, was not, however, removed, because the block contains flaws, and there is the possibility of the mass snapping without warning.

The problem is how the ancient Egyptians arranged to , remove such an obelisk from its bed, transport it overland, and then down the river, and finally erect it. It would be a task taxing the resources of the "most advanced engineers of to-day with all their equipment, but it is certain that the Egyptian ancients were abue to do it.

It is most amazing, as the obelisk has been half cut from the bed without the aid of a single sharp instrument. The trench around the obelisk is literally bashed- out, probably by balls of stone attached to heavy wood, manned by three men each. The obelisk is the most notable addition to the sights of Upper Egypt made for 15 years with the exception of Tutankhamen’s tomb.