For me as a qualified stonemason, this is a perfect example of an object that can bridge the millennia and connect an ancient people directly with the present day. While maybe not the most spectacular object in this gallery, it still tells a great story. Study of the tool marks left by the ancient mason, which are still clearly visible can tell much about how the mason worked. To a trained mason, these provide almost as clear a picture of how this piece was made as if I had been standing alongside at the time it was worked. This gives me an amazing feeling of connecting with the thinking of the ancient craftsman and truly brings history to life. Masons are also ideally placed to appreciate the amazing skill, artistry and mastery of working in stone displayed by the Egyptians. After a number of visits to that fascinating country, I still wonder at the expertise displayed in its monuments and buildings. Not only did the Egyptians have a great eye for design and all the skills needed to carry that through to the finished product. They also had an amazing ability for building on a monumental scale and for handling blocks of a size and weight that would still be very daunting in the present day with all our machinery and technology. If this wasn't enough, the Ancient Egyptians were also highly skilled in working extremely hard stones such as granite. Modern day steel granite chisels have the advantage of very hard tungsten tips to protect their cutting edge. The Egyptians had no such luxuries, as the hardest metals they possessed were copper or bronze, so this was all they had to manufacture their chisels. These would be no match for the very tough and abrasive granite and when used, the chisel tips would be dulled almost immediately. Without the benefit of modern metals and diamond tipped electric saws, the Egyptians proved that with patient perseverance, immense skill and ingenuity, anything is possible. Granite was therefore worked using balls of hard vulcanic rock (Dolerite) as 'pounders' to bruise down the stone close to the finished level. The chisels could then be used along with rubbing blocks of abrasive stone to create the finished surface. Evidence of this method of working can still be seen on the massive 'Unfinished Obelisk' in the granite quarries at Aswan. Abandoned before completion, this giant can still be seen lying in situ with the deep, round-bottomed channels cut by the Dolerite pounders around its outline very clearly visible. At 137 feet tall and weighing in at an estimated 1,168 tons, this would have been the tallest and heaviest obelisk in Egypt if it had been completed. Looking back at the Egyptians' stone building achievements, I can't help feeling they didn't even contemplate the word impossible. From the world's biggest religious building; the huge temple complex of Karnak, the colossal 21m high seated statues of Ramesses II carved out of the cliff face at the temple of Abu Simbel, to the amazing precision and sheer enormity of the great pyramid of Khufu at Giza, they seemed to relish pushing the boundaries of achievement ever further. Their amazing monuments can still fill the viewer with awe thousands of years after their creation!