The voyage was pleasantly slow. Clustered on ground villagers found above the high water mark of the riverine spate, were countless small settlements. The few fortunate enough to find a grove of palms or trees took advantage of the slight shade offered in search of relief from the unrelenting heat. I embarked in the middle of Shemu, the season of growth when Amun-Re’s barque blazed brightly. Farmers tilled their fields, tended livestock and fowl, extended their mud brick houses to accommodate newly born children or merely sat in small groups passing the time in a manner unchanged for centuries. Many were engaged in drawing water from the river to irrigate their crops or in the endless task of cutting channels to fields distant from the river’s edge. Occasionally, our vessel passed an isolated rock inscription or lonely shrine commissioned by erstwhile kings but the land south of Thebes was little troubled by the vitality and demands of urban life.
For much of its length, fertile plains on both sides of the river stretched out to the foot of the limestone hills. Green oases of date palms and fruit tree orchards gave some texture to the blandness of the flat fields and where ubiquitous papyrus clumps and reeds clung tenaciously to the riverbanks, they provided a cool haven for waterfowl. In places, the river narrowed between sun bleached embankments heavily scoured by the annual flooding.
Aswan, located at the First Cataract, was such a place and the river roiled boisterously within the confines of a long, tortured gorge faced with cliffs of deeply fissured rock. Grasses and stunted trees found slender footage amongst the boulders and fractured granite outcrops. Squatting at the lower end of the cataract is a fortified citadel on the Isle of Abu, the first of our massive frontier forts guarding the kingdom’s southern borders. The town of Aswan lay on the eastern shore, with the quarries on the opposite bank. We disembarked at a dusty loading quay and waited until the horses and chariots were taken off the transport vessel and harnessed.
I travelled with two assistants brought more for company than for their technical knowledge, although one had some experience in moving large stonework at Luxor. We drove inland towards the granite workings which were set amidst vast clusters of greyish boulders and immense stone reefs shimmering in the heat. The air resounded with the pounding of hammers on chisels and the chatter of workmen. Intense sunlight from the solar barque beat down unmercifully, turning the quarry into a furnace. I wondered how men could work in such an intolerable place.
Already sweating freely, we soon arrived at the quarry. As we dismounted, a giant of a man emerged from one of the buildings to greet us. Nebamun,as he introduced himself, was the quarry master. He was the tallest and most powerfully built man I had ever encountered. The king was unusually tall, yet the quarry master stood a head taller, had a chest like the vaulted roof of a tomb and the stature of an elephant. The kilt he wore had, at some remote time, probably been white. It was now grey, well worn and stained with the same fine stone dust that lay thickly on everything around us.
He escorted us to a roomy office sheltering amidst a grove of dusty date palms. Once seated, I attempted to brush the dust off my clothes before accepting this to be wasted effort. Nebamun, without asking, produced a heavy flask and poured four beakers of chilled barley beer. Before I could express my surprise, he rumbled “The best cooling chamber in the world is one carved into red granite. As soon as the beer has fermented, we pour it into granite amphorae and store them in underground vaults.”
The beakers were carved out of grey granite, also worked at Aswan. I looked about me, everything had been fashioned from granite; the building itself, the tables, shelves and even the stools on which we sat. Little of the stone had been polished but we sat in a room which would cost a noble a small fortune to emulate. The quarry master seemed in no way surprised to find the royal architect on his doorstep, unannounced, nor did he appear to be disconcerted by my arrival. I thought him to be a quietly confident fellow, an asset in any man. After the customary exchange of pleasantries he spoke, his voice deeply resonant.
“Lord Sennefer, you are now in the birthplace of the noblest material the gods granted mankind. On the day Atum wept his first tears of joy when he beheld his creation, those glistening tears fell here at Aswan and turned into granite boulders. It is said from the union of Sobek and Heket sprang their offspring, these magnificent granite hills.”
I had not heard of this particular marriage between these deities but if he believed this fable I was not to trouble his tranquillity with details. The man obviously loved his stone and it kept the beer cold.
“Quarry Master, I come fresh from the king’s chamber bearing a rare assignment which, I anticipate, will tax the most skilled masons in the kingdom. I am told I will find the most adept masters of stone in this place.”
“There are none greater.” he replied with pride. “Those of us who work with granite have her crystals in our blood and there is no task we cannot perform. When the stone is hot, she is like a woman in passion but when she is cold, she is like the grave. Her colouring entrances the mind and dazzles the eye. The beautiful Isis herself will never outshine our granite. We know how to master her, tame her strength and shape her to our will. She is hard to wrest from her bed but when she gives up part of herself, we are halfway to victory. Unlike the feeble limestone you Thebans favour, granite is a stone which sings with a metallic voice when she is caressed. When lavished with tenderness, she gleams with the inner beauty of the most serene goddess.”
I wondered if Nebamun had been at Aswan overly long or whether he had suffered under Re’s immense disc for too many summers.
“Come, finish your draught and let me show you where she sleeps.” Nebamun rose to his feet and led the way out into the blazing sunlight. We passed through a yard full of men hammering away at dark hued blocks, chips and red dust piled at their feet. Masons attacked roughly outlined forms and there were recognisable shapes emerging from some of the blocks. I also noticed many broken pieces scattered around the yard.
“What are those?” I said pointing to a heap of broken statues.
“When she is unkind and careless of our ministrations she cracks. As we begin each piece, we beg her to allow us to bring her to her crowning glory with our chisels and polishing stones but sometimes she refuses our entreaties and breaks our hearts. What can we do – she is a woman and women are by nature fickle and unpredictable.”
We walked towards the first massive reef. The walls of the outcrop were scarred with chisel cuts and several large blocks lay on wooden rollers waiting to be moved to the mason’s yard. A team of men atop a roughly hewn block of reddish granite laboured with long iron chisels, their hammers rising and falling in unison. The dust and clamour of pounding on stone made the quarry a noisome and infernal place, though many who gave offence to the gods or transgressed the law of the kingdom quickly found themselves guests at His Majesty’s quarries as reward for their sins.
“Working with granite is demanding, like the stone itself. First, you look for the elusive perfection that hides within her. There must be no sign of fault in the stone, no cracks or intrusions of blemished material. When seducing a woman you must be vigilant. You woo her and overlook the small problems you first see, paying no heed to them. You fall in love and then, when you wish to consummate your passion, the little irritants you ignored become obvious. I have worked with her all my life and know her ways. I look to see the faults before I fall in love but who can truly plumb the depths of a woman’s heart?”
He took us back through the mason’s yard. Hundreds of men were pounding at granite objects with round-headed rock hammers. Each blow appeared to pulverise a small area of stone.
“Copper and bronze chisels are almost useless in the final shaping and only pounding the surface with dolerite hammers will mould this stone until the finished piece is released from her embrace. Only then can the arduous task of polishing begin with quartz and granite dust worked onto the surface with burnishing stones. When fine details are required we use rare and costly iron chisels to
carve eyes, lips, ears and other features. Hieroglyphs and figures are also cut into surfaces with iron tools.”
“Look here.” he said, pointing to a broken obelisk. “This was commissioned by King Horemheb for delivery to the temple at Abydos. The stone was not selected with sufficient care. She cracked as the mason tried to separate her from the bed she had lain upon since creation. If you look closely, you will see a thin yellow line, a vein of yellow quartz which is very weak, the fatal weakness in her soul, a weakness she hides within her enticing red gleam.”
I began to warm to the man and thought Ramesses would also enjoy his company. I was pleased with what I saw. There were boulders large enough to carve out the statues Ramesses demanded and evidence that massive blocks had been split off the reefs.
“Nebamun, I am commanded to produce two statues of the king. These statues must be more imposing than the colossi of King Amenophis III at his mortuary temple.” I handed him a sketch.
“Hmmm, that may be a problem.” said the quarry master, effortlessly changing from the lyrical to the practical. “Have you calculated the weight of these monsters?”
He squatted down and traced some figures in the sand with his finger. He finished, looked up at me. “I estimate each statue will weigh about 1500 tonnes which is heavier than anything we have fashioned at this quarry. I am not concerned about the length as we have created obelisks taller than you indicate but the dimensions will be much greater than the base of any obelisk. We can quarry a block or select boulders of a size massive enough to yield statues of the dimensions required but I doubt if we could move them or if they could be shipped to Thebes by river transport. Let me be frank. Unless the king wants two gigantic statues of himself to sit in this quarry for eternity,he will have to have more modest figures or use soft stone”
“The king is not always receptive to frankness, Quarry Master, although I have discussed some of the possible limitations with the him. It will be my responsibility to seek his acceptance of the biggest statues you can create. Let us return to your office and discuss what will be your greatest achievement. I am thirsty and another beaker of your barley beer would be refreshing.”
When resettled into his office Nebamun became thoughtful. Over beer and dates, we began to explore the realms of possibilities.
“How do you move such a mammoth block or boulder from where it rests on the ground?” I asked.
“For this commission, we will select a boulder rather than attempt to free a block from a reef. Boulders are more pure as they were formed from celestial tears. Much unnecessary material is cut away whilst the raw stone is still where we first locate it. The shape is roughed out by masons, whilst labourers dig around the base of the boulder to loosen her bonds with the earth. We must be firm with her at this time because the initial blows are the first to test her willingness to yield to us without breaking our heart in the early years of labour. If there are flaws in the boulder, they may be revealed at this time. Once the first shaping is complete, we lay a track of timber rollers in front of the crudely shaped block and then gently prise Atum’s tear from the earth and pull it into the mason’s yard. This is relatively easy because the ground gently slopes towards the yard and once the block starts to move, it is not hard to control its descent. In the yard, a second, more skilled team of masons complete the final shaping. In statues of this type, the back is carved first, then we turn the block so its back lies on a sled. Work then begins on the front and sides. About five thousand men work here which gives me enough muscle to roll each block onto the sled which will carry the piece from here to Thebes. Once the statue is finished, it is a simple matter to move it to the loading quay. At this stage,the statue is almost complete. We leave just enough un-worked material on the back to allow rough handling but the front and sides will have received their final polish. Loading the statue onto a vessel is a task only demanding the expenditure of more sweat and skill but nothing else.”
His next remark was blunt. “A conventional barque will sink or break under the weight of such a burden. Unlike an obelisk, which is carried on long narrow vessels, the enthroned statues we discuss are wide, deep and their mass is unevenly spread due to their shape. The load is not uniformly distributed as it is with an obelisk and their irregular mass will not only sink any barque I know of, it will snap the keel and framing timbers. It is for this reason I cannot make statues above a certain weight and size and for no other.”
Just when I thought the problem of creating the colossi had been resolved, he dashed cold water in my face.
“I must also warn you no matter how careful we are in the selection of the stone and the attention we lavish on her, she may reveal a hidden defect and break even on the last hammer blow. We cannot restore the virginity of a broken woman no matter what the king may want. Scattered throughout this area are hundreds of broken statues and some dozen cracked obelisks. We have enough broken masonry here to create our own city of shattered deities, kings and members of past nobility.”
“The king would find your honesty refreshing but he is unforgiving of those who tell him what they cannot achieve. Quarry Master, if you can fashion the statues I will find a method of transporting them to Thebes.” I said with some bravado. “Let us work out the final dimensions and weight as I must return to Thebes to discuss my ideas with the watermen. I have something in mind to meet and overcome the transportation difficulties. How long will it take to finish both statues?”
“Let me see. Allowing time to select suitable tears, break them free from the ground and complete the work, you can expect both statues to be ready to transport in four years.”
“You will hear from me within one month. I suggest you now seek out your brides from amongst her tears, beg Atum to release her purity from his grasp and Thoth to guide the hand of every man who works on your twin beauties. The king will beseech his brother Ptah, the patron of all masons and craftsmen, to bring a special blessing to you and your men. If you are successful in this matter, I can assure you of finding high favour with the pharaoh.”
“Lord Sennefer, I admonish you to warn His Majesty we may only be able to deliver one statue. Even with the blessings of the gods, one of the pair may break as the work progresses.”
With this note of caution in mind, we discussed certain technical matters. I was particularly interested to learn more about loading heavy pieces from quays onto riverine transport because forgetting to pay attention to small details invariably leads to failure. Just before we took passage home, Nebamun asked me to join him in his treasure house.
“We have so many broken statues in the quarry that when time permits and commissions do not keep my men busy, I try to recover what I can from the scrapheap, especially from a rare type of granite we sometimes find amongst the outcrops. Look at these beauties. You see the depth of colour? Each crystal is sharp and distinct. Sometimes when Atum wept, his tears turned to exquisite crystal as though some of his blood mixed with the tears and these expressions of his love I prize above all others. The majesty of his soul is imprisoned in these gems. Will you do me a small honour? Please choose a piece for your home.”
In the warm light given off by the oil lamps, each figure glowed with a deep fiery redness. I selected a small finely carved and polished statuette of the goddess Hathor I thought my wife would appreciate and offered my thanks to Nebamun. There are some advantages in holding a high royal appointment. Early in my married life, I had been made to understand that if I wished to travel far from the marital home I must, upon my return, offer some small gift to appease the ruler of the house. If I neglected to pay tribute to this particular goddess, I would learn to enjoy the solitude of the cold and lonely bed in my office. As a result of my frequent trips on the king’s business and the ability to grasp the difference between pain or pleasure, our home was beginning to look like a small art dealer’s emporium. I rarely slept in my office.
We departed Aswan early the next morning, stopping only briefly at a village boasting
a sweet fresh water spring, to wash the granite dust from our bodies and have the barque flushed clean of its gritty cargo. On my arrival at Thebes, and after receiving a kiss of approval from the home goddess and a look that promised more, I called a meeting of our best watermen and the controller of the quays lining the western bank river. They conferred noisily around the meeting room table until I called them to order and began by outlining the nature of the problem of transporting these huge, heavy statues. I waited for the ribald comments to pass as watermen are renowned for crude behaviour and conversation. Having received, in highly descriptive words, every reason for the assured failure of my mission, I asked,
“Which of you are barque builders?” Several hands rose “I have an idea I wish you to consider although I doubt the ability to reason is amongst your meagre skills.” This evoked more hoots of derision. “Keep in mind, I am commanded by the king to bring his wishes to fruition. I remind you that the king richly rewards those who help bring more honour and glory to his name and, as I hold the office of royal architect, I have his ear. I am well positioned to mention the names of those who bring lustre to pharaoh’s name, just as I am well placed to list the names of those who whine like mewling cats and whimper like women when faced with difficulties resolute men can resolve.”
To the average waterman, the promise of something more than endless toil, little money and the other burdens of a squalid life quickly captured their attention and many backs bristled with the imputation of weakness. If it were possible to beat watermen into disciplined regiments, our enemies would quake at the mention of their reputation.
“Listen closely, you flea infested braggarts and you may learn something. You would be familiar with the punts used to hunt fish and crocodiles on the river. They are flat bottomed and wide so the hunter can stand up and launch his spears without losing his balance and tip the punt over.” Heads nodded in agreement. “When in Aswan, I noticed a large collection of wooden rollers stored side by side awaiting use. The rollers were of a similar diameter. They had been stacked in layers with the second and subsequent layers at right angles to the layer below. Stakes had been driven into the ground to stop the stacks from collapsing.”
The Golden Falcon Page 24