Nature blessed the land of Egypt with a variety of beautiful stones, ranging from soft to solid, establishing Egypt as the birthplace of stone manufacturing and utilization worldwide. Consequently, Egypt became the world’s greatest master of building art, excelling in this field since the earliest times, especially with the development of brass instruments for cutting stone in prehistoric times.
The use of stones in construction became prevalent since the First Dynasty. Here, we will discuss the stones Egyptians used in building, followed by those used for making pots, statues, and furniture.
Types of Stones Used in Ancient Egypt
Ancient people collected, transported, and shaped enormous rocks-known as monoliths-for thousands of years. They dealt with impressive sizes and weights when they carved gigantic statues and shaped stone blocks for pyramids, temples, and other monumental structures. The availability of different rocks, and where people quarried the chosen types, fascinates me. Many ancient societies carved monoliths.
The stone quarries of ancient Egypt once produced quality stone for the building of tombs and temples and for decorative monuments such as sarcophagi, stelae, and statues. These quarries are now recognised archaeological sites. In June 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) of Egypt established a new department for conservation of ancient quarries and mines in Egypt.
Archaeologists recognize approximately 200 quarry sites in Egypt, with the majority next to the north-south Nile River that provides a lifeline for this desert region. Intensive quarrying required significant logistical organization, and so it took place only during periods of strong royal power.
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Rocks played a major role in the religious practices of ancient Egypt. For almost 3,000 years, various dynasties directed the use of monolithic blocks in temples, pyramids, tombs, and enormous statues. The vast available quantities of sandstone, limestone, and igneous granitic and volcanic rocks made this possible.
White Limestone
White limestone is commonly found in the hills bordering the Nile Valley from Cairo to just beyond Esna. It is also present in various locations between Esna and near Aswan, such as on the river shore in Faras near the chain and near Kom Ombo. Lower Egypt features this stone near Alexandria at El-Max and in the vicinity of Suez. The Egyptians used this type of stone until the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty, when sandstone became more abundant.
Still, its use was not neglected, as Seti I built most of his temple in Al-Arabah Al-Madfunah, and parts of the Temple of Rameses II in the same area. The finest types of this stone came from special quarries, such as those in Tora and the two mountains, where ancient remains can still be seen. Inscriptions dating from the Twelfth to the Thirtieth Dynasties have been found in the Tora quarries. Documents and inscriptions indicate that stones were cut from Tora as early as the Fourth Dynasty. The pyramids of Giza were covered with Tora stones.
Inscriptions on the press quarries date back to the Eighteenth Dynasty until the Ptolemaic era. The pyramids of Giza were covered with Tora stones. As for the original building, its stones were cut from local quarries, and they were recently found around the pyramids themselves. It seems that the Tora stones were the finest types of limestone.
However, limestone was used for construction and sculpting statues due to its ease of work.
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Sandstone
Sandstone is a composite of quartz sand resulting from the decomposition of old rocks and coherent with each other in small quantities of clay, lime, and iron. It is found in the hills extending from Esna along both edges of the Nile to Aswan, and from “Kalbasha” to Wadi Halfa. The Egyptians did not widely use sandstone as a building material until the Eighteenth Dynasty.
The widespread use of this stone began in the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, with most of the Kings’ temples from this period until the Roman era constructed from it. Key temples include the Temple of Luxor, Karnak and Qurna, Ramsium, Medina Habu, Deir al-Madina, Dendara, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Elephants, as well as temples in Nubia between Aswan and Wadi Halfa, and the oasis temples in the Western Desert. Some temples were built with white limestone and others with sandstone, such as the temple of “Thutmose IV” and the temple of “Mentfah”. The most important sand quarry is located at the river chain, 40 kilometers north of Aswan between Edfu and Kom Ombo.
Granite
Granite has been used as a building material since the beginning of the Dynastic Period. Its use in construction, the cladding of the third pyramid, building the second pyramid temple of Khafre, and in the pyramids themselves has been previously mentioned. The granite used in ancient times was extracted from Aswan. The most important quarries in Aswan are located a kilometer south of the city and on the eastern side of the plateau. Small quarries are also found on the islands of Fintin and Suhail, and in a few other places.
Aside from the quarries of Aswan, the only other known granite quarry used by the ancient Egyptians is the red granite quarry in Wadi Fawakheer, part of Wadi Hammamat between Qena and Qusayr. Granite was used sparingly since the pre-dynastic era for purposes other than construction, especially in making utensils and dishes.
Alabaster
The name alabaster stone is commonly known as calcium sulfate (gypsum), but Egyptian alabaster differs completely, being composed of calcium carbonate. Egyptian alabaster is a stone made of crystallized and compressed calcium carbonate, with a white or yellowish color and somewhat transparent thin sections with veins. Alabaster was used for paving corridors, cladding stones, and making niches, starting from the early dynasties to the Nineteenth Dynasty. Examples include a room in the Saqqara pyramid, Step 14 (Third Dynasty), a room in the Valley Temple of King Khafre, and the “Wanas” pyramid in Saqqara (Fifth Dynasty).
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Alabaster is found in Sinai and various other places in the desert on the eastern shore of the Nile. Quarries are located in Wadi Jarawi, west of Helwan, dating back to the Old Kingdom, and in the desert between Cairo and Suez. In Maghagha, stones were cut during the reign of Muhammad Ali, and in the region between Minya and southern Assiut, where the most important ancient quarries are located, including the “Hatnoub” quarry, 15 miles east of Amarna, containing inscriptions from the Third to the Twentieth Dynasties. This stone was favored by the ancient Egyptians for its beautiful appearance after polishing and its ease of work.
In addition to its use for construction, alabaster was used for other purposes, with tools found from the pre-dynastic era to the end of the Pharaonic era and beyond. It was used to make vessels, beautifully shaped headpins, and coffins since the Third and Fourth Dynasties, such as the coffin of Queen “Hetepheres” and the sarcophagus of Pharaoh “Seti the First”. Additionally, it was used for vessels holding the deceased’s intestines, sacrificial tables, dishes and jars, and statues.
Basalt
Basalt stone is black, heavy, and coherent, often with a lustrous appearance. There are two types: one with fine grains distinguishable only by a microscope, and another with grains visible to the ordinary eye, known as « Dolorite ». The basalt used in Egypt is actually diorite with fine grains. It was used in the era of the Old Kingdom to pave parts of temples, as seen in the patch of the pyramid of Khufu.
Basalt stone is found in several directions of the country, such as the “Abu Zaabal” quarries, the quarries northwest of the Giza pyramids in the Abu Rawash area, the desert between Cairo and Suez, Fayoum, southeast of Samalout, in Aswan, and the Bahariya Oasis. The basalt used in the Old Kingdom in the cemetery extending from Giza to Saqqara was likely brought from Fayoum. Before its use in construction, basalt was used, despite its hardness, in making vessels dating back to the Neolithic period, the Badari era, and the pre-dynastic era. Axe heads from the Neolithic period have also been found, and basalt was sometimes used in making coffins, possibly including the coffin of King Menkaure.
Basalt was also used in making statues, and people sometimes confuse it with grey granite, black granite, schist, and basalt. It was not extensively used in buildings, but some lintels of the doors of the pyramid of King Titi in Saqqara and the covering of the burial chamber in the pyramid of Hawara (Twelfth Dynasty) were made from it. This type of stone was used in contrast to buildings in making coffins and statues, such as the coffin in the pyramid of Hawara from the (Twelfth Dynasty), and the coffin of “Thutmose III”, “Hatshepsut” and “Tutankhamun”, all of which are from the Eighteenth Dynasty.
There are other stones that the Egyptians used other than what we mentioned in making coffins and statues, and small things such as cups and utensils, tools and weapons.
Other Stones
There are other stones that the Egyptians used other than what we mentioned in making coffins and statues, and small things such as cups and utensils, tools and weapons. In fact, the types of stones used in Egypt and distinguished each other from some of the most complex things that object to the archaeologist in his research.
- Green Persia: The green porcupine contains pieces of rocks of very different descriptions buried in different colours. Green Persia is found in several places. The best known of it is in Wadi Hammamat Al Barshaya, also at the mouth of Wadi Dab, and in the area west of Jabal Dara, and Jabal Manfool, in Silsat al-Arf, and Jabal Hamada.
- Diorite stone: Diorite stone, or the stone of the mountain of fire: it is called a species of crystallized stone with grains, and it consists of white felspar and black honeydew and its grains are fine or thick, and it is found in Egypt in abundance in several places, especially in Aswan, in the eastern and western deserts, and the Sinai.
- Dolomite stone: Dolomite, which is, as “Flinders Petri” knew it, lid, opaque stone with a white colour interspersed with veins that are sometimes white, but most of the time they are grey, and sometimes they are black. The chemist “Lucas” says: All the species he examined are white interspersed with veins Or dark grey spots, and it is found in the eastern desert in several places. It was used in the early dynasties to make cups and utensils; later, it was used in other things.
- Al-Zaran or flintstone: It was the first stone used in Egypt and the rest of the world’s nations before copper was known. The Stone Age man made his weapons and tools from this stone even after copper was revealed, but in small quantities, and it has continued to be used in making decorative tools that were to follow pure traditions.
Quarrying Techniques
Throughout the Dynastic Period until near the end of the Late Period, building stones were quarried with copper (and later bronze) chisels and picks. The chisels were hammered with wooden mallets and the metal pick heads were hafted on wooden handles. It is probable that chert (or flint) pick heads were also used, as these are harder, although more brittle, than the metal tools, but so far there is little archaeological evidence for this.
Building stones were typically extracted from the quarries as rectangular blocks. Vertical trenches were first cut along the back and two lateral sides of an intended block, and then the block’s open front face was undercut to complete the separation from bedrock. In a final step, using the same tools, the now loose block was often dressed (trimmed) to adjust its size and shape. This basic approach to quarrying remained unchanged from the Old Kingdom down to Roman times.
During the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, however, hammered iron wedges set in lines of pre-cut wedge-shaped holes were sometimes used to split limestone and sandstone, especially the harder varieties. The extracted stone blocks were transported from the quarries and to the construction sites on sledges during the Dynastic Period and on wagons thereafter. Transport by boat was also common when the construction sites were distant from the quarries.
There were two quarrying innovations introduced early in the New Kingdom. The first of these, dating to the Amarna Period, was the extraction of limestone and sandstone blocks with standardized dimensions that were small enough for one workman to carry. These are the so-called talatat blocks, which measure about 52 centimeters (one cubit) by 26 centimeters (a half-cubit) by 26 cm.
Unique to these blocks was a new method for detaching them from the bedrock. A series of closely spaced, roughly cylindrical, horizontal holes were cut underneath the block from front to back. The partitions between these holes would have been progressively cut away, leaving some in place for support, until the block was free. A second advance, first appearing during the reign of Amenhotep III, was in the limestone and, at Gebel el-Silsila, sandstone galleries, where annotated lines were painted on ceilings to mark the quarrying progress.
Most of the hard and soft stone sources known in Egypt were exploited to varying degrees and purposes since prehistory into at least the Roman Period. The nature of the deposit, in terms of its physical properties, was a key factor in how the rocks were extracted.
Transport infrastructure in quarries can vary according to the nature of the ground surface-and steep descents-over which the stone had to travel on its journey to the Nile. The importance of water in the transport process of large objects was clearly vital, the termini of most quarry roads linking in some way to the Nile or its nearest tributaries.
New Kingdom quarry roads associated with the transport of large ornamental objects from the silicified sandstone quarries at Gebel Gulab on the west bank at Aswan are some of the most extensive and best preserved in Egypt. These networks comprise secondary paved roads that lead directly into New Kingdom quarries from where large objects were extracted. The roads all converge onto a central artery, which traverses Gebel Gulab and then changes character into more ramp-like structures to ease passage of the stone down towards the Nile.
The world’s oldest paved quarry road connects the Old Kingdom basalt quarries of Widan el-Faras with the shores of ancient Lake Moeris at Qasr el-Sagha in the Northern Fayum. Constructed from local sandstone, limestone, basalt, and fossilized wood, the terminus of the 11 kilometers road at a quay utilized the waters of Lake Moeris during high Nile floods.
Archaeologists at the unfinished obelisk site have identified traces of a trench at least 8 ft (2.4 m) deep that extended toward the Nile River, possibly deepening as it neared the river, and this channel was likely planned for floating the massive obelisk downstream to its planned location. Other blocks came across desert tracks for perhaps as far as hundreds of miles. Human muscles were used to drag these using rope harnesses, possibly on sleds along prepared roads or tracks.
Moving monolithic blocks from quarries to construction sites was undoubtedly a major challenge for the ancient people. Many enormous stone blocks from quarries along the Nile River were transported by boat on the river and then in channels excavated by the ancient workers.
| Stone Type | Period of Use | Applications |
|---|---|---|
| Granite and Granodiorite | Old Kingdom | Exterior veneer on pyramids |
| Basalt and Travertine | Old Kingdom | Temple pavements |
| Granite | Old and Middle Kingdoms | Temple columns |
| Granite, Siliceous Sandstone, and Travertine | New Kingdom | Temple columns |
| Sandstone | Throughout antiquity | Construction of monumental buildings |
| Travertine | Throughout antiquity | Stone vessels and monumental architecture |
| Metagraywacke | Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods | Stone vessels |
| Chert | Late Predynastic through Roman periods | Tools and weapons |
The use of various stones in ancient Egypt reflects not only the geological diversity of the region but also the ingenuity and resourcefulness of its people in creating lasting monuments and artifacts.
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