Stone quarries of ancient Egypt
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. Ancient quarry sites in the Nile valley accounted for much of the limestone and sandstone used as building stone for temples, monuments, and pyramids. Eighty percent of the ancient sites are located in the Nile valley; some of them have disappeared under the waters of Lake Nasser and some others were lost due to modern mining activity.
Rock temples cut directly in the rocks at the Silsileh quarrying site, near Aswan
The Colossi of Memnon are two massive statues made from blocks of quartzite quarried from Gabel el Ahmar.
Depiction of a limestone quarry in Tura by Karl Richard Lepsius, a 19th century Prussian Egyptologist.
Baptismal font in the Cathedral of Magdeburg, Germany. The font is made of purple porphyry quarried from Gabal Abu Dukhan.
Abu Rawash, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Giza, is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid, also known as the lost pyramid – the mostly ruined Pyramid of Djedefre, the son and successor of Khufu. Originally, it was thought that this pyramid had never been completed, but the current archaeological consensus is that not only was it completed, but that it was built about the same size as the Pyramid of Menkaure – the third largest of the Giza pyramids. It is the location of the northernmost pyramid in Egypt, the pyramid of Djedefre and around fifty mastabas. The excavation report on the pyramid complex was published in 2011.
The ruined Pyramid of Djedefre sits atop the plateau of Abu Rawash
The guard at Abu Rawash rests in the shade of the burial pit of the Pyramid of Djedefre
Abu Rawash Pyramid Boat Pit