The Forbidden City is the ancient capital of China, today surrounded by modern Beijing, which was ruled by 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for almost 500 years. The city lies at the 40th latitude at the point of its intersection with the Samaipata meridian and is precisely oriented along the north-south axis. But now is not about that. But now is not about that.
In the 15th - 16th centuries, for the construction of the Forbidden City, a huge amount of stone of various sizes was mined and transported to the place of work. Moreover, the largest monoliths were delivered from a quarry located 70 km from the construction site. The largest of these "pebbles", justly called the "Big Carved Stone", today weighs more than 200 tons, and when it was whole, it weighed about 300 tons.
The stones are huge monolithic slabs over 10 meters long and about 4 meters wide, covered over the entire surface with skillful carving. There are more than ten such plates.
The slabs are laid between the stairs leading up to the imperial palace. In fact, the entire structure is a stepped pyramid with a temple on top. Some steps of the stairs, by the way, are also cut from a monolithic piece of rock, 5 steps in each section. Imagine what the manufacturing waste was. It would be much easier to fold the ladder from separate blocks without sacrificing the appearance.
The entire vast territory of the Forbidden City is paved with rectangular stone blocks of various sizes. Not by paving stones, but by blocks, each of which was mined in a quarry, processed, delivered and laid.
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We can say that the Forbidden City is a solid stone. Walls, embankments, squares and even fences, everything is made of stone and covered with carvings, and on a gigantic scale.
Some of the carved elements of the ancient Chinese capital are strikingly reminiscent of the same in another ancient capital, only on another continent.
Recently came across an article reporting that the Chinese engineer Jiang Li from the University of Science and Technology managed to find some documents, 500 years ago, giving some information about the way the giant monoliths were moved.
The engineer translated the ancient text and found out that huge slabs weighing more than 130 tons were transported by "a group of men over 28 years old" on sleds sliding on the ice. According to Lee, this fact is indirectly confirmed by other findings. Pavda did not specify what.
The workers dug wells every 500 meters and extracted water, which was then poured over the ice. This made the surface even more slippery and made it easier to move the sled.
In order to understand why the Chinese used sleds 3,000 years after the invention of the wheel, Jiang Li and his co-authors on the study from Princeton University considered the energy required to move the sled.
According to their calculations, about 50 people, watering the road, could drag the 123-ton monolith over rough terrain from the quarry, which was located 70 kilometers from the Forbidden City.
At the same time, the researchers found that the average speed with which the stone was dragged across the wet ice should have been about 8 cm per second. This speed is necessary so that the liquid water, which was poured over the road, does not have time to freeze.
The researchers hypothesized that, in general, the builders preferred to move stones on sleds along the smooth ice road rather than on gurneys. An ancient document that Lee translated says that the ancient foremen even had a debate about how to transport the blocks to build the Forbidden City, by sleigh or on wheels.
The ancient builders understood that using a sled would require much more labor, time and money than if mules were pulling carts. But the sled was seen by them as a safer and more reliable means for the slow transport of heavy loads.
It is wrong to think that projects of such a level as the Forbidden City were carried out without the necessary level of planning and organization, scientists say.
All this is certainly true, but historians still do not delve into the inconvenient technical aspect of the issue. Moving such loads, over such distances, by sleigh seems, to put it mildly, unlikely. This method could be suitable for transporting small blocks, but it is not suitable for hundred-ton blocks.
No sled can withstand a weight of 100, let alone 200 tons. Even if the runners are made of several logs and a monolith is laid directly on them, under such a weight, after a certain number of meters, there will be nothing left from the logs or from the road.
A hundred-ton stone will crush the tree anyway and turn it to dust. For the same reason, it will not be possible to roll such blocks.
Even if the runners are made of a steel channel, which of course will withstand such a weight, it will not work to move it, because the road surface will instantly become unusable and the sled will simply bury itself in it.
That is why the version of building pyramids using a ramp, which would have to be made of a material of the same density as the loads moved along it, is untenable. That is, made of stone. Just like the rails and wheels of the carriage, which travel on them, are made of the same material.
Today, for the transportation of goods of this weight, special equipment is being developed, the bearing units of which are made of especially durable materials. For lifting, special cranes and steel cables are used. No ropes can support a hundred ton weight. Again, there is nothing to hook the cable to, and there is nothing to raise the plate with. See the article "Europe is building the pyramid of Cheops".
It is also incomprehensible how the ancient builders overcame descents and ascents on the icy road. Especially when you consider that the slabs are very heavy, thin and long stone strips that are very fragile. The slightest misalignment can split the stone.
As you know from the course of school physics - ice melts under pressure, and it is due to this that the sliding effect is achieved. We all observed how massive objects gradually grow (sink) into the ice under their weight. Now imagine how quickly the ice will melt under the 120 ton megalith.
Also in doubt is the fierce winter at latitude 40, which runs in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Last year, for example, in Beijing was recorded the lowest temperature in 26 years of observations, minus 4.6 degrees. This temperature is 4.1 degrees Celsius lower than the average temperature in December for all years of observation. Thus, the average winter temperature in Beijing is about zero. Although, of course, 500 years ago, everything could have been different.
Sergey Borisov