Types of stones that were used in ancient Egypt
Nature loved the land of Egypt many types of beautiful stones, some of which are milk, and some of them are solid, which made Egypt the birthplace of stone manufacture and use in all the world. It is not surprising, then, if we find Egypt, the world’s greatest master of building art. It has struck a right arrow in this regard since the earliest eras, especially since it had reached the use of brass instruments to cut it since prehistoric times. The effect that came about the use of stones in construction since the era of the First Dynasty, as we mentioned that when talking about art, we will talk here first about the stones that the Egyptians used in building. Then we will follow that talk about the stones that he used to make pots, statues and furniture. Then we devote a special chapter to the stones that the Egyptians used to consider precious or semi-precious, some of which are not considered as such in our view today.
The most important building stones are the following:
White limestone: It is found more and more in the hills that border the Nile Valley from Cairo to just beyond the city of Esna. It is also found in different points between Esna and near Aswan; for example, it is found on the river shore in Faras near the chain and near Kom Ombo. Lower Egypt is found near Alexandria at the El-Max and in the vicinity of Suez, and the Egyptians used this type of stone until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty when it took its place at that time by the abundance of sandstone. Still, its use was not neglected at one time, as it used it. Seti the First »built most of his temple in Al-Arabah Al-Madfunah, and some parts of the Temple of Rameses II in this spot. In addition, some tombs from all ages were carved into the rocks of this stone, as is seen in Giza, Saqqara, Thebes, and others.
And the best types of this stone had special quarries that were cut from them, such as the quarries of Tora, quarry 1 and the two mountains, whose ancient remains can be seen to this day. Inscriptions dating back to the Twelfth Dynasty and extending to the Thirtieth Dynasty were found in the quarries of Tora. 2 However, we have documents and inscriptions indicating that the stones cut from Tora date back to the fourth dynasty, 3. Still, there is no doubt that the stones of this region were used. In the construction of the ruins of Saqqara since the Third Dynasty, and indeed from the First Dynasty, some stones from Tora were found included in the buildings of this period.
As for the quarries of the press, the inscriptions on them date back to the Eighteenth Dynasty 4 until the Ptolemaic era. In the mountain quarries, we find inscriptions from the Nineteenth Dynasty until the Roman era.
There are other quarries with Pharaonic inscriptions, so in Al-Barsha, for example, a quarry with cartouches from the era of the Thirtieth Dynasty.
The pyramids of Giza were covered with Tora stones. As for the original building, as we mentioned, its stones were cut from local quarries, and they were recently found around the pyramids themselves. As for Professor Petri’s statement that the pyramid’s stones were cut from Tora is not correct. 7 As we proved that above. Perhaps the writers of the Greeks and Romans had an excuse for saying that the stones of the pyramids were cut from Tora because the pyramids in their era were still covered with tara stones, and therefore they ruled that all the pyramids were built from this stone.
It seems that the Tora stones were the finest types of limestone. Therefore it is not far-fetched that the kings used them in building their temples, even after moving the capital to Thebes, which was not adjacent to an excellent class to build a temple such as a temple of “Amenhotep the First”, whose stones are very similar to the Tora stones.
However, limestone was used for construction and was used for other purposes such as sculpting statues due to its ease of work. The art of mastering statues in this type of stone was evident during the reign of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties in Giza and Saqqara and fake doors, sacrament tables, and other mortified furniture.
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 consists of the hills extending from Esna on the two edges of the Nile to Aswan, then from “Kalbasha” to Wadi Halfa. However, the Egyptians did not use sandstone as a building material until the Eighteenth Dynasty. But despite this, I found some blocks used in buildings dating back to before the dynasties, as well as used in the eleventh dynasty mainly, and in the paving of the floor and the pillars and the roof stones, and the mayors’ room in the temple of “Mentuhotep” in Deir al-Bahari.
However, the widespread use of this stone did not begin until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, as the reality is that the construction of most of the Kings’ temples from this period until the Roman era was of this stone. The most important of these temples are the following: The Temple of Luxor, Karnak and Qurna, Ramsium, and Medina Habu, And Deir al-Madina, Dendara, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Elephants, as well as the temples in Nubia between Aswan and Wadi Halfa, in addition to the oasis temples located in the Western Desert, provided that there are temples some of them were built with white limestone and some with sandstone. In particular, we mention the temple of “Thutmose IV” and the temple of “Mentfah”. The temple of “Hatshepsut” in Deir el-Bahri was all built with white limestone.
The most important sand quarry is located at the river chain at a distance of 40 kilometres north of Aswan between Edfu and Kom Ombo. There are inscriptions on it from the eighteenth dynasty until the Roman era, 8 as well as there are Siraj quarries at a distance of 20 miles south of Aswan, and in the country of Nubia in Qirtas at a distance 25 miles south of Aswan as well, and these last quarries were used around the Thirty Dynasty until the Roman era, especially for cutting the stones with which the Temple of Qirtas and the Temple of the Elephants were built, 9 As for the stones in which the temples of Nubia were built, they were cut from quarries near those temples themselves, as well as This can be seen in the small quarries near Dabur, Latifa, and Beit al-Wali.
Granite stone: The word granite is used for a large group of crystalline volcanic stones of origin, and it is not consistent in its composition, such as limestone or sandstone, but in fact, it is composed of several different elements, the most important of which are quartz, feldspar, and mica, but silicon is the dominant material in the formation of this stone.
Granite has been used as a building material since the beginning of the Dynastic Period. We have previously mentioned its use in construction, in the cladding of the third pyramid, in building the second pyramid temple of Khafre, and in the pyramids. The granite that was used in ancient times is the granite extracted from Aswan. Grey granite was used as well, but very little.
There is no dispute that the Cien granite mentioned by “Pliny” about his pieces of “Siny” 10 (i.e. Aswan) is the red granite stone, but the word “Sidney” is now used to denote the dark grey granite rocks.
Granite is found in many places in the country’s regions, but it is abundant in Aswan, Eastern Desert, and Sinai, and small quantities in the Western Desert.
The most important of its quarries in Aswan are two, one is located a kilometre south of the city, and the second is located on the eastern side of the plateau. However, there are small quarries on the islands of Fintin and Suhail and in a few other places. The quarries of Aswan and Fintin and the quarries of the first cataract were mentioned in the ancient documents since the Sixth Dynasty, 11 in addition to this a quarry in a place called “Ibbett” whose exact location has not yet been determined; however, it is verified that it is located next to Alvin.
We do not know of granite quarries used by the ancient Egyptians, unlike the quarries of Aswan and its vicinity, except for the red granite quarry in Wadi Fawakheer, 12, which is part of Wadi Hammamat between Qena and Qusayr. We do not know the date of the beginning of the work, but it is possible that it was opened during the Roman era.
Granite was used sparingly since the pre-dynastic era for purposes other than construction, especially in making utensils, 13 and dishes. At the beginning of the Dynastic era, it was widely used due to the frequent use of copier machines, and it was also used to make coffins and then carve statues and obelisks, paintings, and other things.
The name alabaster stone is usually known as calcium sulfate (gypsum), but Egyptian alabaster differs completely from it, composed of calcium carbonate. Egyptian alabaster is a stone made of crystallized and compressed calcium carbonate. Its colour is white or white to yellowish, and its thin sections are somewhat transparent with veins in most cases. Alabaster was used in paving corridors, cladding stones, and making niches and began to be used in the dynasties. The first to the era of the Nineteenth Dynasty; For example, it was used in a room in the Saqqara pyramid, Step 14 (the Third Dynasty), in a room in the Valley Temple of King Khafre, and the “Wanas” pyramid in Saqqara (Fifth Dynasty). Likewise, during the reign of the kings of the Sixth Dynasty 15, the paving of the central part of the temple of the pyramid of “Titi” and the twelfth family in the niche of King “Senusret I” 16 in Karnak, etc.
Alabaster is found in Sinai and various other places in the desert on the eastern shore of the Nile, so we find quarries in Wadi Jarawi, west of Helwan, dating back to the Old Kingdom, 17 and in the desert between Cairo and Suez. In Maghagha, where stones were cut from it during the reign of Muhammad Ali 18 In the region between Minya and southern Assiut, and in this region, the most important ancient quarries of this stone are located, the most important of which is the “Hatnoub” quarry located 15 miles east of Amarna, and it contains inscriptions dating back to the Third Dynasty until the Twentieth Dynasty, 19. There is another quarry in the south. In the Asyut valley, it was used in the early eighteenth dynasty, then it was used again during the reign of Muhammad Ali and was mentioned by the Greeks since the fourth century BC.
In fact, this type of stone was loved by the ancient Egyptians because it was beautiful in appearance after polishing, and this is that it was soft and easy to work with. In addition to its use for construction, it was used for other purposes, as tools were found from it in the pre-dynastic era 20 to the end of the Pharaonic era and beyond. It used to make several vessels, and beautifully shaped headpins and coffins were carved from it since the reign of the third and fourth dynasties as the coffin of the queen “Hetepheres” and the sarcophagus of the pharaoh “Seti the First”. In addition, the vessels in which the deceased’s intestines were placed, the sacrificial tables, dishes and jars, and statues were. They are sometimes made of it, especially in the Old Kingdom, when huge vessels were found in the pyramid of Djoser made of this stone.
Basalt stone: This stone is black, heavy, coherent atoms, its life appears most often with lustre, and it is of two types. The first type has wonderful grains that a microscope machine, real basalt, can only distinguish. In contrast, the second type can be distinguished by the ordinary eye, called « Dolorite ». The type of basalt that is used in Egypt is, in fact, diorite with fine grains. It was used in the era of the Old Kingdom to pave some parts of the temples, as can be seen in the patch of the pyramid of Khufu, of which a part remains until now. From this stone, Some parts of the temples of the Fifth Dynasty kings were also paved in Saqqara, such as corridors, funeral paths, and some rooms, as well as some parts of the sun temples in Abu Sir, located between Giza and Saqqara.
The basalt stone is found in several directions of the country, such as the “Abu Zaabal” quarries and the quarries located in the northwest of the Giza pyramids in the Abu Rawash area and the desert between Cairo and Suez, and in Fayoum, and at a close distance from the southeast of Samalout, in Aswan, and the Bahariya Oasis. And in the Eastern Desert and Sinai
It seems that the basalt that was used in the Old Kingdom in the cemetery extending from Giza to Saqqara was brought from Fayoum, as there is no evidence that the basalt that was used in this cemetery was brought from «Abu Zaabal», especially if we know that the type of basalt What was used in it is close to the type that was in Fayoum. Dr Hassan Bey Sadiq stated in a letter from him in 1933 that there is no evidence that the Abu Rawash basalt quarries were used in old times, even though the type of basalt in it is of a poor, decomposed type.
Before the basalt stone was used in construction, it was used despite its hardness in making vessels, some of which date back to the Neolithic period, the Badari era and the pre-dynastic era. In addition to that, he found axe heads from it from the Neolithic period, and basalt was sometimes used in making coffins. It is possible that the coffin of King Menkaure, who sank in the sea, was of this stone. However, he thought several coffins were basalt, but they are Actually from light blue-grey schist. 23
Basalt was also used in making statues, and people sometimes confuse grey granite, black granite, schist, and basalt. And for this, she knew things as basalt, and in fact, they are not basalt.
Quartzite stone: It is one of the types of sandstone coherent with grains, and it may be of ordinary sandstone coherent with silica intertwined by mixing crystalline quartz sand grains, and its colours and texture vary, so it is white, yellowish or red, as its grains are fine or thick, and there is in the Red Mountain 24 near Cairo And in the desert between Cairo and Suez, and a cave on Bir Hammam Road 25 and the Wadi al-Natrun depression, as well as on the tops of the sandstone hills in Nubia in the east of the Nile 26 to northern Aswan, and in Sinai.
It was not used extensively in buildings, and most of what we know is that some lintels of the doors of the pyramid of King Titi were made in Saqqara and the covering of the burial chamber in the pyramid of Hawara. (Twelfth Dynasty). As well as in the Northern Pyramid and the Southern Pyramid in Mazghuna (Twelfth Dynasty). The quarries of Jabal al-Ahmar are still used, and they had inscriptions on their rocks, but they have now disappeared, and this quarry and the stones that were cut from it were mentioned several times in ancient documents.
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, and the king’s head. Daf Ra ”is from the Fourth Dynasty, the statue of King“ Senusret the Third ”from the Twelfth Dynasty,“ Thutmose the Fourth ”,“ We ​​shall die ”(Dynasty 18) and the statue of the god“ Fatah ”(Family 19). There is a suspicion that the statues of Memnon (Amenhotep III) were made of this type of stone.
(1) Stones that the Egyptian used for other purposes than building
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. And the oldest thing that we have left in Egypt until now is that which was made of adorn stone.
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. We will suffice to mention these stones and use them most, without interfering in the technical details.
Parthia stone: It is a stone composed of pieces with sharp corners, and there are different types of it in Egypt, including the red slant to the white, and the green type, which is a rock mixed with a mother of another material, and the red and white Porchia consists of white pieces mixed with a red mother and is found in abundance on the western shore The Nile has many places, and it is found in North Minya, near Assiut, 29 in Thebes, near Esna, as well as in the Eastern Desert, 30 and this stone was used in particular during the era of the first dynasties in the manufacture of pots, 31 and then disappeared after that until the era Roman as it was exported at the time to Italy.
The green porcupine contains pieces of rocks of very different descriptions buried in different colours. The colour green is dominant, except that it is not the original Albrecht.
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. 32 All of these places are located in the eastern desert, and it is also found in Sinai 33
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 34. In the Neolithic period, it was found on pieces of plates and on top of the axe 35 and diorite, which was used in ancient Egypt in several different types, one of which its grains are thick, and its colour is black and white. It was used in the pre-dynastic era and in the first dynasties to make pinheads, Cups and utensils, 36 and sometimes small paintings. This special type was brought from Aswan, and a similar type was brought from the eastern desert from the hills between Qena and Al-Qusayr in Wadi Samna. The latter was exploited during the Roman era. There is another type that archaeologists called diorite, from which the famous statue of King Khafre was carved in the Egyptian Museum. This type was used in the era of the Old Kingdom, and it has white and black spots and differs greatly in appearance even in the piece The one, but most of the time it was dark grey, or light grey, or white streaked with black, and the latter type was used a lot in making pots and cups. The other types were used in making statues, especially in the fourth dynasty.
The place from which this type of stone was extracted was recently found in the Western Desert, 40 miles northwest of Abu Simbel in Nubia.
Another type of porphyry diorite is composed of a black mother with large, fully formed crystals in the centre of a black mother with bright white pieces.
Diorite stone: It is a type of coarse basalt, and there are no limited differences between them. It is found in the eastern desert near Al-Qusayr, 38 near Jabal Al-Dukhan and Sinai. One of the most important uses is to make pistons used to manufacture solid stones, and large balls of it can be seen lying in the old granite quarries in Aswan and the quartzite quarries in the Red Mountain near Cairo. These machines have remained since the time of the ancient Egyptians, conclusive evidence of their use of machines suitable for the manufacture of these stones.
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. Petri mentioned that he found forty-four and 39 vessels of what he called the Dolomite alabaster from the era of the First Dynasty.
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. The clutches include a very coherent type of silica which is dark grey or black in colour, and it breaks In the form of fragments, and its edge is categorical. It is found in abundance in different places in Egypt in the form of small knots and layers in the limestone rocks and scattered on the surface of the desert after the limestone is removed by erosion.
Gypsum: It is the material that the ancient Egyptians used instead of lime for the whiteness of the walls until it was known that lime was used in the Ptolemaic era, and it is a natural material that differs greatly in colour and composition, it may be white or grey in a variety of colours, or a light brown colour and sometimes it is a slight pink, and it is there In nature, in the form of scattered crystal pieces that are not suitable for drilling, and in the form of coherent rocks, such as those found in the Mariout area, west of Alexandria, and between Ismailia and Suez, and in Fayoum, as they are found in excess near the Red Sea coast.
Gypsum is similar in shape to alabaster, so it is sometimes called alabaster.