Hard Stone Quarries

To see a chart with different types of stones and their properties, click here.

As one would expect, extracting materials from hard stone quarries was significantly more difficult for ancient Egyptians than from their soft stone counterparts. The tools necessary to remove and shape blocks from bedrock had to be as strong or stronger than the rock being cut, and for this reason metal tools could not be used. Instead, workers would chip away at hard stone with tools made from comparatively harder types of stone. Such is the case with the extraction of granite, where dolerite balls were pounded against the rock's surface in order to cut into it.

Granite was used as a building material by the Egyptians throughout most of the dynastic period. Djoser's funerary complex at Saqqara marks the first time it was used extensively, but by the 18th and 19th dynasties it had become the third most used architectural material after limestone and sandstone. Initially, builders obtained granite by simply working large, loose boulders that dotted the outskirts of the upper Nile valley near Aswan. Obviously, the supply of these boulders quickly ran out as architects began to fully utilize the stone for its structural and aesthetic properties. It became apparent that granite would have to be quarried from bedrock, and no place could provide this more easily or abundantly than the source of the early boulders, Aswan. Marked by its magnificent cataracts(the northernmost in Egypt), the Aswan region would be able to supply ancient builders with all the granite they could ever use.

In order to see how granite was extracted from Aswan by the ancient Egyptians, it is best to look at abandoned quarries such as the famous unfinished obelisk. This massive site was originally intended to become the source for the largest obelisk ever made (when erected, it would have been 42 meters high). Work on this colossal feat was halted late in its development because of the discovery of cracks in the rock that would threaten the obelisk's structural integrity. Though its size was abnormal, it is evident from remains at the site that the unfinished obelisk was cut out of bedrock using the method suspected to have been implemented at other granite quarries. Workers would cut away a trench of about 75 cms all the way around the block intended for removal by pounding at the surrounding bedrock with the dolerite balls mentioned previously. Each worker would have his own quadrant in which he would chip the rock in one corner until told to change position and work another corner. After the trench had reached its desired depth (a bit deeper than the depth of the block being quarried), workers had to cut out enough rock from underneath the block so that it could be broken free by massive wooden levers.
The incessant noise of dolerite balls pounding, knee damage due to kneeling all the time, and other factors led to what would seem to be a rather miserable existence for quarry workers. It was not necessary for these to be skilled laborers, so it is often theorized that prisoners of war or other people in unfortunate situations did most of the work. Most studies of ancient Egyptian quarrying techniques for hard stone have focused on granite, but we know that quartzite at least was not obtained by pounding around it with dolerite balls. Instead of having relatively vertical walled trenches, quarries of this rock featured walls stepped in one foot increments. These steps were cut by creating a crack in the rock with huge diorite chisels and then breaking off the remainder .

Bottom image (Dolerite pounding ball found in situ at Aswan) From Ancient Egyptian Masonry (Clarke, 1930)