 Camels were used for communication and for the transport of food and water.The columns may have also been dragged more than 100 km from the quarry to the river on wooden sledges, though the terrain from quarry to the Nile is such that the route was downhill the entire length.They were floated by barge down the Nile River when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port of Ostia.