Art Activism

The colossal statues of Egypt are very wonderful on account of their

vast weight and size. The most famous are two which stand on the west

bank of the Nile at Thebes. Each of these colossi is made from a single block of stone such as is not found within several days’ journey of the place where they stand. They are forty-seven feet high, and contain eleven thousand five hundred cubic feet each. But a third is still larger; it represents the King Rameses II., and, when whole, was of a single stone, and weighed eight hundred and eighty-seven tons. It was brought from Assouan to Thebes, a distance of one hundred and thirty-eight miles. It is wonderful to think of moving such a vast weight over such a distance, and one would naturally wish to know also how the sculptors could work on such a statue.