What could be the transport system and heavy lifting procedures for handling the huge cap stone on the top of the Great temple of Tanjore (India) and the Giant Blocks of Great Pyramids of Egypt ?! Atleast for the project logistics professionals, it could be one of the biggest mysteries of all time Heavy Lifting & Haulage mysteries, ever since ancient times. It is a challenging task to have an encompassing analysis of the ancient (project) logistics system unless the transport and lifting procedures are documented in full, albeit we do have some inscriptions.
The weight of the Great Cap Stone ( Gopuram, Kalasam in Tamil ) kept at the summit of Tanjore big temple statedly weighs about 80 metric tons. Engineered without any heavy cranes and or lifting equipments, the project logistics team of the Tamil Emperor Raja Raja Chola 1, mounted this Granite made, architecturally designed heavy lift, at a height of 66 meters in the year 1010 AD, on the apex of Tanjore Temple, also commonly known as the 'The Big Temple', which celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 2010. The only thing that we can surmise is that of the help of elephants.
Referring to the transportation and installation procedures for construction of Great Pyramids of Egypt and the man power involved, Wikipedia states under ‘Egyptian pyramid construction techniques’ – “The Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Djehutihotep has an illustration of 172 men pulling an alabaster statue of him on a sledge. The statue is estimated to weigh 60 tons and Denys Stocks estimated that 45 workers would be required to start moving a 16,300 kg lubricated block, or eight workers to move a 2,750 kg block. Experiments done by the Obayashi Corporation, Japan (project team member of DURL, who constructed Dubai Metro Project), with concrete blocks 0.8 m square by 1.6 m long and weighing 2.5 tons, showed how 18 men could drag the block over a 1-in-4 incline ramp, at a rate of 18 meters per minute. It is still not known whether the Egyptians used this method for construction of Pyramids but the experiments indicate that it could have worked using stones of this size”.
We still do not have any records of the handling procedures of these marvels of Heavy Lifting of ancient period. The modern concept of Heavy Haulage and Heavy Lifting evolved with unique capabilities and state-of-the-art equipments, made possible by technology and engineering. There are too many things happening around the world and such is the rapidity of forces of development, chiefly propelled by the unique demands and the respective scientific contribution. Best brains are on the job in the project logistics sector, in the sense, more technical ideas are perennially brought into interplay in order to achieve much of progress for the science of logistical haulage of the heavy cargo.
Significantly, when it comes to a question of dealing with the lifting of heavy lift project cargo, it is bound to be a challenging task, even challenging the surface and sea alike at times of the expected engineering manoeuvres. Every time a heavy lift cargo is moved, as distinguished from other standard shipments by its size and weight, sometimes larger and heavier than the conventional proportions, it will be a saga of human endurance, adventurous skills, planning, management and infinite patience – of project logistics professionals. No other activity is so consistently and insistently covering so much of the earth, sea and space in an ongoing matrix of logistical equations. Endless search for further conquest of development of project logistics is going on, since ancient times, I believe.
