On the top right of the image is visible the body and the crown of the stele. Towards the bottom is the base.Photo credit: Megalithic China
Posted on 06/09/2025 7:03:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Thousands of workers spent years clearing the hillside and carving the stone from the mountain. According to a legend, workers who failed to produce the daily quota of crushed rock of at least 33 sheng were executed on the spot. In memory of all those who died at the construction site, including those who died from overwork and disease, a nearby village became known as Fentou, or "Grave Mound".
After huge expense and unimaginable labor, the three parts were chiseled almost entirely free from the mountain. Then the engineers realized their emperor’s folly -- there was no way they could move the gargantuan stele, weighing 31,000 tons combined, from the quarry to the gravesite. As a result the project was abandoned, and the Yongle Emperor had to make do with a much smaller tablet known as the Shengong Shengde. It was installed at the Xiao Mausoleum in 1413. The stele consist of a stone tortoise which supports a carved stone stele, crowned by intertwining hornless dragons. The stele stands barely 9 meters tall, but it’s an impressive monument nonetheless.
Although the Yangshan quarry stele was a foolish endeavor, the Yongle Emperor did some great things for China. It was he who ordered the repairs of the Grand Canal that connected northern and southern China. He moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where he commissioned the construction of the Forbidden City, a monumental architectural feat that became the seat of Chinese emperors for centuries. He was also responsible for the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, considered one of the wonders of the world before its destruction by the Taiping rebels in 1856. Yongle also promoted maritime exploration, most famously through the voyages of Admiral Zheng He, which extended Chinese influence as far as Africa and the Middle East.
(Excerpt) Read more at amusingplanet.com ...
On the top right of the image is visible the body and the crown of the stele. Towards the bottom is the base.Photo credit: Megalithic China
Right.
One of the heaviest single things picked up and moved across any distance was the USS Cole. It weighed about 7,000 tons when it was carried from Bahrain to the US for repair. The “Blue Marlin” was the heavy lift ship that carried it.
The crawlers at Kennedy space center have been upgraded from a 5,000 ton capacity to an 8,000 ton capacity. So 4 crawlers could move the block, unfortunately there are only two of them in existence ( now named “Hans” and “Frans”).
Very interesting post.
The largest of the Baalbek stones in Lebanon was only 1650 tons and it couldn’t be moved either.
I wouldn’t want to be the engineer tasked with telling the emperor “We can’t move it, you majesty.”...............
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