| Mons Porphyrites · مونس بورفيريتوس | ||
| Governorate | Red Sea | |
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The Mons Porphyrites (Porphyry Mountain) is an ancient porphyry quarry used in Roman times in the Arabian desert in the East Egypt about 55 kilometers west of Hurghada on the northern slope of the Gebel (Abū) Duchān (also Gebel / Gabal / Jabal (Abū) Duchchān / Dukhan / Dukhkhan, Arabic:جبل أبو دخان, Gabal Abū Duchān, „Father's mountain of all smoke"). The special thing about this deposit is that a purple variety of porphyry, the imperial porphyry, can be found here. Archaeologists are most likely to be interested in this site.
background
Location and importance
The ancient quarry is located in egyptianGovernorateRed Sea, about 55 kilometers west of Hurghada. It was on the ancient caravan route that Maximianopolis / Cainopolis in the Nile valley Myos hormos connected to the Red Sea. Mons Porphyrites is the only mining area in the world in which red porphyry (English: Imperial Porphyry, Italian: Porfido Rosso) can be reduced.
Usage history
Porphyry was not used as a building material in ancient Egypt. In the early days, reading stones were occasionally used to make jewelry and vessels.[1]
British Egyptologist Reginald Engelbach (1888–1946) assumed that the systematic porphyry degradation was only under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Reign 285–246 BC) began, around the time the Red Sea port city of Myos Hormos was founded.[2]
According to tradition, the porphyry deposit is said to have been discovered by a Roman legionnaire in AD 18. It fits that the oldest inscription on site in the quarry from the time of the emperor Tiberius (Reign 14–37 AD).[3] As a result, the porphyry was mined in the area of the mountain peaks and slopes in order to use it in various large buildings in the Roman Empire such as in Rome, Byzantium, today's Istanbul, or in the sun temple in LebaneseBaalbek to be able to use. Pillars, statues, ostentatious tubs, sarcophagi, bowls, vases, cornices and panels were made from porphyry. According to the inscriptions, mining came to a standstill in the 5th century AD.
In the 20th century, from the 1930s to the 1950s, porphyry was mined here again.
Working and living conditions
To break out the blocks man-wide grooves were carved out around the blocks. By means of wedge splitting, as is common in Roman quarries, the blocks were broken or divided from the rock. The raw porphyry blocks were then transported into the valley via chutes and loaded onto donkey carts via ramps. The workshops for further processing were located near the valley and not directly at the quarry site.
The miners and their families lived in fortified settlements in the valleys, not in the immediate vicinity of the quarries. The settlements included wells, baths and a burial ground, a Sarapis temple and a church. The latter was mentioned on a stele found in 1823 and was erected at the time of Emperor Flavius Julius. The quarry workers also included exiles. Due to the isolation of the quarry, an escape was out of the question.
Properties of the porphyry
The porphyry was formed in the Precambrian about 1 billion years ago as volcanic effluent rock (magmatite) when silicic acid-containing magma melts solidified. Due to its composition, it is a dacite porphyry. It consists of about 66% by weight of silicon dioxide, 16% by weight of aluminum oxide, 4.5% by weight of calcium oxide, 4% by weight of sodium oxide, 2.5% by weight of iron (III) oxide and 2% by weight. -% manganese oxide or potassium oxide. The local porphyry also contains 0.5 to 5 millimeter large insets made of white to pink feldspar.
There are both the gray, green-black and black (i.e. the usual), as well as purple varieties. The latter occur only here worldwide and are particularly popular. Its meaning can also be seen in its name: Imperial Porphyry, Imperial porphyry. The red porphyry is always in the hanging wall, i.e. in the uppermost zones of the porphyry stocks. The porphyry gets its characteristic color from the violet color of the mineral piedmontite, which is occasionally coated with pink epidote.
Research history
Knowledge about this deposit was lost in Islamic times. It was not made until 1823 by the two British Egyptologists James Burton (1788-1862) and John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875) rediscovered.[4] Also the German Africa explorer Georg August Schweinfurth (1836–1925) visited this site and found four different mining areas, which he named Lycabettos, Rammius, Lepsius and North-West and recorded on a topographical map.[5]
Scientific research did not take place until the 20th century, for example in the 1930s by George William Walsh Murray (1885–1966) as part of the Geographical Survey of Egypt, 1953 by David Meredith - he recorded the inscriptions in the settlement and in the quarries -,[3] 1961 and 1964 by Theodor Kraus (1919–1994) and Josef Röder[6][7] and 1994–1998 by David Peacock (* 1939) from the University of Southampton.
getting there
The journey can be made by road with an all-wheel drive vehicle. About 20 kilometers north of Hurghada, a slope branches off at the marine biological station of Abū Schaʿr to Mons Porphyrites. The mountain range 1 Abū Schaʿr(27 ° 20 ′ 30 ″ N.33 ° 34 '16 "E) can be circumnavigated in the north or south. Continue in the direction of the 2 Gebel Abū Musa'id(27 ° 19 ′ 4 ″ N.33 ° 20 ′ 0 ″ E) and reaches the valley cut at south of the hill 1 27 ° 18 ′ 46 ″ N.33 ° 21 '17 "E. You stay in the main wadi, the Wādī Umm Siḍra, without turning into secondary wadis, until you reach the wadi crossing 2 27 ° 17 ′ 41 ″ N.33 ° 17 ′ 18 ″ E reached. Then you drive further south to Wādī Abū el-Maʿamil, the actual Porphyr valley. Most of the sights are already in this valley.
To get to the north-west village, you have to turn on the way to the main valley 3 27 ° 16 ′ 20 ″ N.33 ° 17 '14 "E to the southwest and reaches the northwest village at 4 27 ° 15 ′ 27 ″ N.33 ° 16 ′ 39 ″ E.
The wadi splits about a kilometer behind the central warehouse. Via the western wadi you can reach the south-west village after approx. 4 kilometers 5 27 ° 13 '57 "N.33 ° 17 '8 "E. A good kilometer before it branches off 6 27 ° 14 '6 "N.33 ° 17 '37 "E a slope to the Lycabettos village. After 2.5 kilometers and 600 meters in altitude you will reach this village at 7 27 ° 14 ′ 28 ″ N.33 ° 16 ′ 50 ″ E.
mobility
The site must be explored on foot. Sturdy shoes and a hat to protect against sunburn are recommended. The hike to the northwest village and Lycabettos village is arduous.
Tourist Attractions
At Mons Porphyrites you can still find the remains of the miners' settlements, the dry wells, various buildings, loading ramps, masonry workshops and fragments of pre-worked stone blocks.
The main attractions are in the main valley, the Wādī Abū el-Maʿamil in the area of the so-called Lepsiusberg. These are the 3 southern fountain(27 ° 15 ′ 3 ″ N.33 ° 18 ′ 0 ″ E) with a brick drainage channel, which is still bordered with five circular pillars, which probably once supported a sun roof, to the east of it the 4 central warehouse(27 ° 15 ′ 3 ″ N.33 ° 18 ′ 6 ″ E), south of that 5 Village(27 ° 14 '58 "N.33 ° 18 ′ 5 ″ E) and another 100 meters south of the 6 Serapis temple(27 ° 14 '55 "N.33 ° 18 ′ 4 ″ E). Columns and lintels are still preserved from Serapis Temple, which was built in the time of Emperor Hadrian.
The central warehouse contains storage and administration buildings and is surrounded by a rectangular wall.
The is located about 300 meters southwest of the aforementioned temple 7 Isis temple(27 ° 14 ′ 50 ″ N.33 ° 17 ′ 50 ″ E) on the west side of the valley.
About 1 kilometer north of the southern well is located in an eastern side valley of the 8 northern well(27 ° 15 ′ 30 ″ N.33 ° 18 ′ 5 ″ E).
Other mining villages and quarries are the so-called. 9 Southwest village(27 ° 13 '57 "N.33 ° 17 '8 "E) and the 10 Lycabettos village(27 ° 14 ′ 28 ″ N.33 ° 16 ′ 50 ″ E). The latter village is located on a steep slope at an altitude of 1,500 meters. It is located at the end of an old, 2.5-kilometer-long quarry road that climbs about 600 meters.
kitchen
Restaurants can be found e.g. in Hurghada or El Gouna. For the excursion to the quarries, food and drinks must be brought along.
accommodation
Accommodation can be found e.g. in Hurghada or El Gouna.
trips
South of the Gebel Abū Duchchān are two other archaeological sites, one 11 ancient fortress(27 ° 14 ′ 19 ″ N.33 ° 22 ′ 55 ″ E) and the remains of the monastery 12 Deir el-Badr(27 ° 12 '52 "N.33 ° 20 ′ 42 "E).
literature
- : Investigations into the imperial quarries at Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus in the eastern desert of Egypt. Bonn: Habelt, 1988, Habelt's dissertation prints: Alte Geschichte series; H. 26.
- : Stones and quarries in ancient Egypt. Berlin: Springer publishing house, 1993, ISBN 978-3-540-54685-6 , Pp. 379-395, color plates 14 f.
- : The Roman imperial quarries: survey and excavation at Mons Porphyrites; 1994-1998. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2001. 2 volumes (Vol. 1: Topography and quarries, ISBN 978-0-85698-152-4 ; Vol. 2: The excavations, ISBN 978-0-85698-180-7 ).
Individual evidence
- ↑: Ancient Egyptian materials and industries. London: Arnold, 1962 (4th edition), P. 17.
- ↑: Notes of inspection. In:Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte (ASAE), ISSN1687-1510, Vol.31 (1931), Pp. 132-143, three panels, in particular pp. 137-143: II, Myos Hormos and the Imperial Porphyry Quarries.
- ↑ 3,03,1: Eastern Desert of Egypt: Notes on Inscriptions; I. Mons Porphyrites: nos 1-20. In:Chronique d'Egypte: bulletin périodique de la Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth (CdE), ISSN0009-6067, Vol.28,55 (1953), Pp. 126–141, Tiberius inscription on p. 134.
- ↑: Notes on a part of the eastern desert of Upper Egypt: with a map of the Egyptian desert between Qena and Suez. In:The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (JRGS), ISSN0266-6235, Vol.2 (1832), Pp. 28–60, a map, in particular pp. 53 f.
- ↑: Over the red porphyry of the ancients. In:Tailor, Oscar (Ed.): Scientific contributions to geography and cultural history. Dresden: Gilbers, 1883, Pp. 76–176, 10 plates, 1 map.
- ↑: Mons Claudianus: Report on a reconnaissance trip in March 1961. In:Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK), ISSN0342-1279, Vol.18 (1962), Pp. 80-120.
- ↑: Mons Claudianus - Mons Porphyrites: Report on the second research trip in 1964. In:Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK), ISSN0342-1279, Vol.22 (1967), Pp. 109-205, panels XXIX-LXVI.
Web links
- Egypt, Mons Porphyrites, Euratlas
