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Hard Stones

• Gebel Dokhan/Mons Porphyrites (#12a): purplish-red andesite porphyry, Imperial Porphyry - variety 'a', subvariety 1 (from the Northwest Quarry)
• Gebel Dokhan/Mons Porphyrites (#12a): purplish-red dacite porphyry, Imperial Porphyry - variety 'a', subvariety 2 (from the West Quarry)
• Gebel Dokhan/Mons Porphyrites (#12a): greenish-black dacite porphyry, variety 'b' (from the East Quarry)
• Gebel Dokhan/Mons Porphyrites (#12a): black andesite-dacite porphyry, variety 'c' (from the Northeast Quarry)

  Stoned in the Eastern Desert
  by Jenny Jobbins

  The town is at the foot of Gabal Fatira (Mons Claudianus) in a small tributary of the Wadi Fatira Al-Beda (the white; another fork being called Al-Zarqa, the blue). Here the quarrymen -- convicts for the most part -- and their families lived, surrounded by quarries where a fine-grained light granite was cut. The local Bedouin call the place Umm Digal (Mother of Columns) after the columns which still lie around. Apparently the ancient semitic root deqel or deqala means date palm, but also pillar or column...
  
  The town's layout can be seen quite clearly and, since the area was unoccupied after the Romans abandoned it, the ruins are relatively undisturbed. The houses threaded with narrow alleyways are enclosed by a wall 70 metres square. Outside this wall are guardrooms, a private villa, an unfinished temple and stables to hold up to 400 head of draught oxen and their fodder. Water was held in a water tower.
  
  The largest of the prostrate columns is 20.5 metres long and 2.6 metres in diametre. Because of their weight, the columns were dressed as far as possible before being loaded on the wagons, which were pulled by as many as 40 oxen. The teams would stop to rest at each of half a dozen stations on the way to the Nile Valley, each with a well, provisions and accommodation. We saw two of these stations later on when we followed the Via Porphyrites to Qena. One of them still contained a cistern of slimy green water, and beside it a length of frayed rope.

  East of Edfu

  Today, three of the towns where the quarrymen lived survive in ruined form, each a cluster of houses crowded within a fortified wall. The town on the terrace opposite the temple housed the officer (who held the rank of centurion), the garrison of the quarry and probably the administrative staff. One eloquently built house, complete with plunge bath, is indicative of the luxurious lifestyle which expatriated officers enjoyed.
  
  The two other towns are much more modest, with little huts divided by narrow lanes. It seems likely these were labourers' houses. Their lives must have been hard and difficult to bear. Many of them were convicts, lower-class criminals, slaves, or even captives from the Jewish and Christian revolts. Greek inscriptions, evidently Christian in origin, can be seen on the quarry walls, confirming the words of Eusebius of Caeseria in his classic Church History (written ca. 303AD) concerning "the vast number of persecuted Christians sent to work in the porphyry quarries of the Thebaids."

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The book shown in message three has a fascinating discussion of these quarries as well as monochrome photos, some of which show some of the cracked or flawed products that couldn't be shipped, laying where they were abandoned over 1500 years ago.

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bttt

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