Moving The Stones
See also: List of megalithic sitesThe quarry was slightly higher up than the temple itself so no lifting was required to move the stones the 800 meters (2,600 ft) to the temple. In 1977, Jean-Pierre Adam made a brief study suggesting the large blocks could have been moved on rollers with machines using capstans and pulley blocks, a process which he theorised could use 512 workers to move a 557 tonne block (approximately 243 tonnes lighter than the trilithon blocks). Adam did not approach the problem of archaeological dating, suggesting that the maritime technology that may have moved the larger stones came from a pre-Roman era, concluding "Knowing that the Egyptians knew about the pulley, it is not unreasonable to attribute the construction to a people of sailors, such as the Phoenicians or Minoans".
Read more about this topic: Baalbek
Famous quotes containing the words moving and/or stones:
“The moving finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.”
—Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883)
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)