Last night (Wed, Aug 11) I was working on the computer at home and happened to have the TV on the History Channel. The show “Chasing Mummies” came on and I just left it there. Pretty soon it caught my attention and I started watching. If you want to watch something that will show you numerous ways NOT to lift a load, try to catch a replay of this program.
They were trying to lift a granite pylon from Cleopatra’s tomb in sunken Alexandria. The granite was about 12 feet tall and weighed 9 tons. You really need to watch this fiasco. They had an ancient crane truck on a boat. As they lifted the granite, the boat began to list to one side, the truck front end started coming off the deck, and finally the rigging strap broke and dropped the granite. When it fell there were still 3 divers in the water not too far away from the pylon.
It gets better from there as they finally lifted it out, tried to chain the truck down while it was bouncing. They finally got the stone on shore after many other scary events. As they tried to stand it up it began to tip and a guy ran under it with what looked like a 2x4 to prop it up. Remember now, the strap had already broken once and this stone weighs 9 tons. Think a 2x4 will hold it?
This is just some of the really outrageous things I saw. It's worth a look. Anyway, check your TV schedule and try to catch a replay of this. I don’t know how they finally got this thing to its final resting place with no injuries or deaths.
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Originally Posted by Gary Click
