The San Francisco call., 1906-11-11
GRANITE SHAFT Is
A GREAT WORK
Cleopatra's Needle Hewn
Out of Solid Rock Long
Before Days of Moses
MOVED TO ENGLAND

In London. on the embankment of the
Thames, standing majestic in its great
height and solidity. is that wonderful
column of red granite known 10 all as
Cleopatra's Needle. what history is
attached to the obelisk, history which
Is as wonderful and strange as the
Needle itself is antique. for its age
dates back as far as 500 years before
the Christian era.
We are told that the child Moses
may have played around the foot OF
this pillar; the Israelltss looking city
ward from the brick fields saw the sun
light glittering on its tapering point;
the plague of darkness clothed it as
with a garment: the plague of frogs
croaked and squatted on its pediment;
the plague of locusts dashed them
selves in flight against IL. and unto its
hardness the heart OF Pharaoh was
likened. The sight of il takes us back
to time when the Pisgah-siSht of
Canaan--was but a promise with a
desert and forty years between
Connecting the history OF the pillar
with such ancient biblical facts as
these. we realize how really aged the
needle is, but we have still to remem-
ber that it has been witness TO events
which took place many hundreds OF
years>even before the days of Moses.
HEwN OUT IN ONE MASS.
When Thothmes III, called Egypt's
greatest King, was in power he gave
command for another pair OF obelIsks
to be cut out OF the auarries at syrene
and erected by the side OF those already
standing, which Rameses had set up be-
fore one of the many temples of the
sun which were in Heliopolis.
Gazing thoughtlessly at the column.
one is prone to overlook the fact that
this tremendous pillar is unlike other
equally high columns in our land as
70 . =
height by stone being laid upon stone
OF block being placed upon block until
! the desired height and form were at
/ tanned, but from the first this was
hewn out of its place in the quarry in
one enormous mass
We can, therefore, understand the
/ difficult undertaking it would be 90 re-
move such a weight Of granite from
| one place to the other in days when
steam was not in use. The quarries
of Syrene were 700 miles from Hello
polls. In an interesting book on this
subject, written by Rev. James King
| (and TO him 1 am indebted for much
/ of this informationl, we have an ac-
count OF how in those early times the
task of cutting out and removing this
column was effected.
oUARRYING THE GREAT BULK.
He tells US that in an old quarry at
/ Syrene there is to be seen an obeliSk
upon which the workmen were busy.
when for some reason they We're
Obliged to leave it only partially cut
out. From this it appears that when
/ the quarrymen wished to abstract a
huge mass, such as the needle would
be, they marked out the form by cut
| ting a deep groove, in which at inter-
walls they made oblong holes. Into
these holes they firmly wedged blocks
Of timber and then. niling the groove
with water. the wood in time swelled
and thus the granite cracked along the
/ outline from wedge to wedge.
Next came the difficulty Of taking
the needle on its first journey, 700
miles up the river 10 thercfty OF Hello
polls. When 1t lay ready for removal
in the quarry rollers made of palm
trees were laid so that the column
could be placed on them and by this
means it could be pushed down TO the
edge OF the river and there a raft was
built round it. When the Nile over
flowed its banks this raft and its bur