Giant stones that are hard to believe exist (30 photos)

Even today, there are no cranes that could lift stones and processing machines on such a scale!





Forgotten Stone (1500 tons)

The Forgotten Stone is one of the largest known processed stone blocks in the world. It is located in Lebanon, near the ancient temple complex of Baalbek.

It is 19.6 m long, 6 m wide, and at least 5.5 m high. The weight of the stone block is estimated at about 1500 tons.

For comparison: this is the weight of about 200 African elephants ????



The forgotten stone on the left.

The forgotten stone can be called the largest monolith in the world that was mined in a quarry.

It is unknown what exactly this stone was intended for. Some researchers believe that it was supposed to be part of an even more grandiose structure than the Baalbek temple complex.





The forgotten stone on the right.

The temple complex at Baalbek was built during the Roman period, sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, although some elements, including the platform with the Trilithon, may date to earlier periods.



In general, there is another point of view on the origin of the Baalbek cyclopean stones. Probably, the temple complex existed long before the Romans arrived here, and even before the rise of Rome. Another question is - who were the ancient stonecutters when they began to build their cyclopean structures, and why did they build them at all?

The Southern Stone of Baalbek (1242 tons)

Another record holder is also located in Lebanon, near the ancient temple complex of Baalbek.



The length of the monolith is 9.5-20.5 m, the width is 4.34-4.5 m, the width is 4.2 m, the height is 4.5 m, and the volume is approximately 400-450 m³.



The stone is carved from local limestone, which was mined in a quarry located approximately 900 meters from the Baalbek temple complex. It was never moved to the construction site.



There are other giant blocks nearby, but they also remained in the quarry.

Thunder Stone (1200 tons)

There are many publications dedicated to the history of the creation of the huge bronze sculpture. But the pedestal of the statue is often neglected.



Meanwhile, it is even more unique than the sculpture itself. Because the pedestal is made of a huge solid monolith called Thunder Stone.

The giant granite monolith was found near St. Petersburg, in the vicinity of the village of Konnaya Lakhta. Initially, it had the following dimensions: about 13 m long, 8 m high, 6 m wide, and weighed about 2000 tons!



Giant boulders can still be found in the Leningrad Region and Karelia.

Some of you gasped in admiration. However, the workers who were tasked with delivering the stone to the capital made slightly different sounds ???? After all, it was the 18th century, no cranes, excavators or other equipment. Everything was done manually, with the help of simple mechanisms, the muscle power of people and draft animals.

They decided to transport the stone in winter to use the frozen ground and ice.



A wooden sled was placed under it, and copper balls were placed under the sleds, which rolled along special chutes. Hundreds of people used winches and ropes to roll the stone to the Gulf of Finland. It took four months! And then the giant stone was loaded onto a barge and delivered to St. Petersburg.



The Thunder Stone lost some of its parts when it was extracted from the ground and rolled to the Gulf of Finland. When it was delivered to the site, the sculptors who gave it the shape of a wave also cut the monolith down a lot. As a result of all its misadventures, the stone "lost weight" to 1,200 tons.

Thunder Stone is slightly smaller than some of the giant blocks from Baalbek. But the ancient blocks were never moved, which cannot be said about the pedestal of the monument to Peter I. So Thunder Stone bears the honorary title of the largest stone ever moved by people.

Unfinished obelisk (1,200 tons)

Our next record holder is in Egypt. It is a huge obelisk that was never completed and separated from the rock it was carved from.



The huge stone block is located in the northern part of the ancient quarries of Aswan, where pink granite was mined, widely used for the construction of temples, statues and obelisks. Aswan granite was famous for its strength and beauty, so it was often chosen for the creation of monumental structures.



The obelisk is estimated to weigh around 1,200 tons and is about 42 meters long.

If it had been completed, it would have been the largest obelisk ever built in Ancient Egypt. All known Egyptian obelisks are at least a third smaller.



However, the record was thwarted by an unfortunate crack.



Here it is.

The defect made further processing impossible, so the obelisk remained lying in the quarry.



The stonecutters have a little bit left.

The unfinished obelisk was commissioned by Queen Hatshepsut, one of the most famous rulers of Ancient Egypt, who ruled in the 15th century BC.

The Stone of the Pregnant Woman (1000 tons)

We are still in Baalbek. Another giant rests here - the Stone of the Pregnant Woman.



The Stone of the Pregnant Woman lies in a quarry about 900 meters from the Baalbek temple complex. Like the Southern Stone, the giant block was also not delivered to the construction site.



It is about 21 meters long, 4-5 meters wide, and 4.3 meters high. The monolith weighs approximately 1,000 tons.

The Pregnant Woman Stone was carved in a quarry during the Roman Empire, when Baalbek (then known as Heliopolis) was an important religious and cultural center.



It is believed that it was intended for the construction of the Temple of Jupiter, one of the most grandiose structures of the Roman era.

Trilithon (800 tons)

Let's continue our excursion through the Baalbek magellites. Here are three giant stone blocks at once, which are located at the base of the temple complex of Jupiter in Baalbek. They were called Trilithon.



The trilithon consists of three huge stone blocks, each measuring 19 m in length, 4.2 m in height, 3.6 m in width, and weighing 750–800 tons.

These blocks are located at the base of the western wall of the Temple of Jupiter and form part of the platform on which the temple stands.



They are laid with incredible precision, raising questions about how ancient builders were able to move and install such massive stones.

Masuda Stone Ship

The Masuda Stone Ship (or Masuda no Iwafun) is a huge stone, part of a group of ancient megaliths known as the "Asuka Stones". It is located near the Japanese city of Asuka, in Nara Prefecture, and is a stone monolith carved in the shape of a ship.



Its length is about 11 m, width is 8 m, and height is 4.7 m. The weight of this "ship" is not exactly known. It is estimated at 300-800 tons.

Historians are still arguing about the origin of this monolith. The official version says that it was created during the Asuka period (538-710 AD), when culture and construction were actively developing in Japan.



However, the exact purpose of the stone remains unclear. Some believe that it could have been a monument or a tomb for a noble person, while others suggest that it is part of an ancient ritual complex.



But there are even more daring theories. For example, some researchers believe that the stone could have been part of an astronomical instrument or even have a connection to ancient technologies that we cannot yet understand.

Levitating Mass (340 tons)

Our review ends with "Levitating Mass". This is a monument of modern art, which is located in Los Angeles, USA, on the territory of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.



It is a giant granite boulder weighing 340 tons, which is installed above a narrow observation walkway.



The author of this project is the American artist Michael Heizer, who is known for his large-scale landscape works. The idea of ​​​​the "Levitating Mass" came to him back in the 1960s, but it was only realized in 2012.



The boulder that became the central element of the sculpture was found in a quarry in Riverside, California. Its delivery to Los Angeles was a real event. A special platform with 196 wheels was used for transportation, which moved at a speed of 8 km/h. The journey took 11 days.

The list of giant monoliths can be continued. But not all of them are monoliths, many of them have not survived, or information about their dimensions is too contradictory.

The Colossi of Memnon are two giant stone guardians that stand in the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, near modern Luxor in Egypt. The weight of each statue is estimated at 720 tons.



However, even from the photograph it is clear that they are not made of a single stone, but of separate blocks, albeit quite impressive ones.

The dimensions of the huge statue of Ramses II are even more impressive. The height of the colossus reached 18-20 meters, and the weight was about 1000 tons. It was carved from a single piece of stone.



The remains of the statue on the right.

But as you may have guessed, only fragments remain of the giant sculpture.

The Aksum Obelisk in Ethiopia is also a very significant monument. It is about 23 meters high and weighs about 500 tons.



It used to be a monolith. But in 1937, Adriano Celentano's compatriots sawed the obelisk into three parts and stole, or rather "smoothed", it to Italy. In 2005, the colossus was returned to its homeland in pieces. But it is difficult to call the Aksum obelisk a monolith.