This video is for the second program in the Secrets of Lost Empires NOVA mini-series, which aired on PBS stations across the country in Feb. Background A diverse group of members of the Guild and Massachusetts College of Art, inspired by Rick and Laura Brown, again worked with a crew from WGBH/NOVA to film the raising of a multi-ton granite obelisk Egyptian style. This follows the failed attempt last spring by a team of experts that included Rick and his son, Wyly, to raise an obelisk in Aswan, Egypt. The plan, based on Roger Hopkins's original idea demonstrated on a smaller scale in Egypt, was to haul the huge obelisk, on its side, up a gravel ramp to the edge of a sand-filled pit lined with stone blocks. As the sand was removed from two doors at each side of the pit, slowly and painfully by human diggers and carriers of the sand, the base of the obelisk slowly lowered into a turning groove, to a 75 degree angle, where it could then be pulled by ropes into an upright position. |