s, which were of great size,
were worked by a mechanical arrangement. The illustration was taken
originally from a fourth-dynasty tomb at Kom-el-Ahmars.

There are also extant pictures of Egyptian cattle-boats, formed of two
ordinary barges lashed together, with a temporary house, or cattle-shed,
constructed across them. The history of Egypt, as inscribed in
hieroglyphs on the ancient monuments, relates many instances of huge
sarcophagi, statues, and obelisks having been brought down the Nile on
ships. The tombs and monuments of the sixth dynasty are particularly
rich in such records. In the tomb of Una, who was a high officer under
the three kings, Ati, Pepi I., and Mer-en-Ra, are inscriptions which
shed a flood of light on Egyptian shipbuilding of this period, and on
the uses to which ships were put. In one of them we learn how Una was
sent by Pepi to quarry a sarcophagus in a single piece of limestone, in
the mountain of Jurra, opposite to Memphis, and to transport it,
together with other stones, in one of the king's ships. In another it is
related how he headed a military expedition against the land of
Zerehbah, "to the north of the land of the Hirusha," and how the army
was embarked in ships.

In the reign of Pepi's successor, Mer-en-Ra, Una appears to have been
charged with the quarrying and transport of the stones destined for the
king's pyramid, his sarcophagus, statue, and other purposes. The
following passage from the inscriptions on his tomb gives even the
number of the ships and rafts which he employed on this work:[2]--

"His Holiness, the King Mer-en-Ra, sent me to the country of Abhat to
bring back a sarcophagus with its cover, also a small pyramid, and a
statue of the King Mer-en-Ra, whose pyramid is called Kha-nofer ('the
beautiful rising'). And his Holiness sent me to the city of
Elephantine to bring back a holy shrine, with its base of hard
granite, and the doorposts and cornices of the same granite, and also
to bring back the granite posts and thresholds for the temple opposite
to the pyramid Kha-nofer, of King Mer-en-Ra. The number of ships
destined for the complete transport of all these stones consisted of
six broad vessels, three tow-boats, three rafts, and one ship manned
with warriors."

Further on, the inscriptions relate how stone for the Pyramid was hewn
in the granite quarries at Assouan, and how rafts were constructed, 60
cubits in length and 30 cubits in breadth,