Image Aswan Quarry EG00452jhp by Jim Henderson

Egypt > Aswan in general > Aswan Quarry EG00452jhp
Images in this gallery relate to Aswan in southern Egypt covering the city, the River Nile and related sites except for more important places such as Philae, The Nubian Museum and Seheil Island Rock carvings.
Aswan Quarry EG00452jhp Granite closeup quarry Ptolemaic Roman techniques slots line fracture technique Aswan Egypt seen in this popular place, the quarry of the unfinished obelisk, visited usually after the package tour excursion to Philae Island as it is located in the Northern Quarries on the outskirts of Aswan itself. There are other quarries and two in the South Quarry area have an unfinished colossus while another has an unfinished sarcophagus. These remains of regularly cut holes are probably dating from Ptolemaic and Roman times when copper and iron tools were used, hundreds of year after the unfinished obelisk was abandoned. It is most interesting because of its sheer scale which, if completed, would have been one of the largest ever cut out but it gives an idea of the techniques used to extract these monsters. Diorite, a very hard mineral stone was used as hammer balls to pound the granite and on either side of this obelisk can be seen deep gullies with bowled floors showing the depth penetrated. This obelisk is thought to have been abandoned when a fracture occurred near the top. Around the area are the remains of other stone quarrying as illustrated in this photo showing how holes were cut in the rock in a series of runs that allowed fractures to occur possibly using a variant on the ‘feather and plug’ method removing the blocks of pink granite to be removed but from a much later period. Keywords: Egypt, Aswan, River, Nile, Nubia, landscape, Northern, Ptolemaic, Roman, quarry, granite, pink, red, obelisk, unfinished, workmanship, techniques, Diorite, balls, pounded, pounding, copper, iron, chisel, marks, heat, charcoal, fracturing, split, metal, tools, huge, scale, abandoned, fractured, history, antiquity, ancient, Egyptian, package, trip, Egyptology, entrance, 2000, slide, film, 35mm, format, Fuji, Velvia, daylight, scanned, scan, Nikon, FM2, manual
© Jim Henderson
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Photographer: Jim Henderson
Collection: Aswan in general
Filename:
Aswan Quarry EG00452jhp
Upload Date: 2016-01-11 10:37:39
Photo Size: 15mb 5334x3543 pixels
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Caption:

Granite closeup quarry Ptolemaic Roman techniques slots line fracture technique

Aswan Egypt seen in this popular place, the quarry of the unfinished obelisk, visited usually after the package tour excursion to Philae Island as it is located in the Northern Quarries on the outskirts of Aswan itself. There are other quarries and two in the South Quarry area have an unfinished colossus while another has an unfinished sarcophagus. These remains of regularly cut holes are probably dating from Ptolemaic and Roman times when copper and iron tools were used, hundreds of year after the unfinished obelisk was abandoned. It is most interesting because of its sheer scale which, if completed, would have been one of the largest ever cut out but it gives an idea of the techniques used to extract these monsters. Diorite, a very hard mineral stone was used as hammer balls to pound the granite and on either side of this obelisk can be seen deep gullies with bowled floors showing the depth penetrated. This obelisk is thought to have been abandoned when a fracture occurred near the top. Around the area are the remains of other stone quarrying as illustrated in this photo showing how holes were cut in the rock in a series of runs that allowed fractures to occur possibly using a variant on the ‘feather and plug’ method removing the blocks of pink granite to be removed but from a much later period.
Keywords: Egypt, Aswan, River, Nile, Nubia, landscape, Northern, Ptolemaic, Roman, quarry, granite, pink, red, obelisk, unfinished, workmanship, techniques, Diorite, balls, pounded, pounding, copper, iron, chisel, marks, heat, charcoal, fracturing, split, metal, tools, huge, scale, abandoned, fractured, history, antiquity, ancient, Egyptian, package, trip, Egyptology, entrance, 2000, slide, film, 35mm, format, Fuji, Velvia, daylight, scanned, scan, Nikon, FM2, manual