Image Aswan Quarry EG02154ajhp by Jim Henderson

 
Egypt > Aswan in general > Aswan Quarry EG02154ajhp
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 EG02154ajhp Unfinished Colossus Granite abandoned head face Ramses Tlaina Quarry Southern Aswan Egypt holiday package a popular place visited after considerable difficulty but thanks to my wonderful guide Suzanne Salama who arranged a taxi driver for me. The journey through the back streets, military zones and industrial sites was fascinating enough but even the taxi driver had to ask twice for directions. It was eventually not that far from a so-called sculpture park that I had ‘discovered’ the previous year on the same search but failed to find the colossus. There are other quarries and two in the Southern Quarry area of which Tlaina has this unfinished colossus, another statue is at Shallal Quarry while another has an unfinished sarcophagus. It is thought that a fracture in the shoulder of this statue of Ramses 11 might be why it was abandoned and further down the hill an unfinished square base has also been found as well as evidence of a ramp or track way that was being prepared for its transportation when completed. The famous unfinished obelisk is the most interesting because of its sheer scale, if completed it would have been one of the largest ever cut out but it gives an idea of the techniques used to extract these monsters. Around the area are the remains of other stone quarrying showing how holes were cut in the rock in a series of runs that allowed fractures to occur and for the blocks of pink granite to be removed. 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 or channels with bowled floors showing the depth penetrated. This obelisk is thought to have been abandoned when a fracture occurred at the very far end. Keywords: Egypt, Aswan, River, Nile, Nubia, landscape, Southern, Tlaina, quarry, granite, pink, red, colossus, Ramesside, Ramasses, unfinished, workmanship, techniques, huge, scale, abandoned, fractured, history, antiquity, ancient, Egyptian, package, trip, Egyptology, hill, top, onlookers, locals, Egyptians, 2002, negative, film, 35mm, format, daylight, scanned, scan
© Jim Henderson
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Photographer: Jim Henderson
Collection: Aswan in general
Filename:
Aswan Quarry EG02154ajhp
Upload Date: 2016-01-11 00:00:00
Photo Size: 12mb 5319x3567 pixels
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Caption:

Unfinished Colossus Granite abandoned head face Ramses Tlaina Quarry Southern

Aswan Egypt holiday package a popular place visited after considerable difficulty but thanks to my wonderful guide Suzanne Salama who arranged a taxi driver for me. The journey through the back streets, military zones and industrial sites was fascinating enough but even the taxi driver had to ask twice for directions. It was eventually not that far from a so-called sculpture park that I had ‘discovered’ the previous year on the same search but failed to find the colossus. There are other quarries and two in the Southern Quarry area of which Tlaina has this unfinished colossus, another statue is at Shallal Quarry while another has an unfinished sarcophagus. It is thought that a fracture in the shoulder of this statue of Ramses 11 might be why it was abandoned and further down the hill an unfinished square base has also been found as well as evidence of a ramp or track way that was being prepared for its transportation when completed.
The famous unfinished obelisk is the most interesting because of its sheer scale, if completed it would have been one of the largest ever cut out but it gives an idea of the techniques used to extract these monsters. Around the area are the remains of other stone quarrying showing how holes were cut in the rock in a series of runs that allowed fractures to occur and for the blocks of pink granite to be removed. 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 or channels with bowled floors showing the depth penetrated. This obelisk is thought to have been abandoned when a fracture occurred at the very far end.
Keywords: Egypt, Aswan, River, Nile, Nubia, landscape, Southern, Tlaina, quarry, granite, pink, red, colossus, Ramesside, Ramasses, unfinished, workmanship, techniques, huge, scale, abandoned, fractured, history, antiquity, ancient, Egyptian, package, trip, Egyptology, hill, top, onlookers, locals, Egyptians, 2002, negative, film, 35mm, format, daylight, scanned, scan