All the sandstone used to build all these temples had to come from somewhere and one of the places is called Gebel el-Silsila. It translates from ancient Egyptian as “The Place of Rowing”.
Slaves were used to cut and remove huge blocks of sandstone that were then dragged down to the river and floated to their final destination.
Ropes were used to create pulley systems that helped move the blocks across the sand and down the hill.
You can see the eyelet chiseled into the sandstone through which a rope was threaded to create leverage.
Below is a rock face that has had blocks of sandstone chiseled from it.
Seeing it really brings to life the work that went into building all the temples.
In fact, there even was space for administration of the quarry.
Behold the world’s first office cubicle.
These aren’t mummies but are statues representing the people that worked in the cubicles as quarry administrators.
They might even be the world’s first HR reps!
Quite an amazing stop along the Nile.