Yellowish-brown is the most common colour of Egyptian sandstones and was the principal
variety used in monumental
constructions from the New Kingdom onward. During the
Middle Kingdom, however, a
purplish-red to mainly purplish-
brown sandstone was employed
as a building material for at least
five temples in the Abydos–Thebes
region. The best-preserved of
these is the Mentuhotep II
(Eleventh Dynasty) mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri.
Purplish-brown sandstone was
employed for its octagonal columns
and their bases, as well as for some of the walls and pavements. The
other examples of this rock’s use include: the Eleventh Dynasty
section of the Amun temple at Medinet Habu; the Twelfth
Dynasty sections of the Osiris-
Khentiamentiu temple at Kom el-
Sultan in Abydos; the north temple
of Min and Isis in Qift; and the
dismantled Senusret I (c.1965-1920
BC) colonnade (now in the block
yard near the Ptah temple) in the Amun temple complex at Karnak. Ordinary yellowish-brown sandstone was also utilised in the Middle Kingdom sections of some of these temples. The purplish-brown sandstone was not used in Egypt after the Twelfth Dynasty, but the reason for this is not known....The source of this colourful rock is almost certainly the Gebel el-Silsila quarry, 60km north of Aswan. This site, which occupies both banks of the Nile River, was first worked in the Middle Kingdom and remained sporadically active until the end of the Roman Period. (For more on Gebel el-Silsila see our series of articles beginning in AE 113.) It mainly supplied yellowish-brown sandstone but also produced other colour varieties. One of these is purplish-red to mostly purplish-brown and is found only in the southern part of the West Bank section of the quarry, where it extends at least 300m along the river in a layer up to 14m thick. This rock continues another 5km to the north along the West Bank, but only in layers less than about 1m in thickness. These occur within the yellowish-brown sandstone in the north-west section of the Gebel el-Silsila quarry, and in the adjoining Nag el-Hammam and Wadi The purplish-brown sandstone at Gebel el-Silsila is a good macroscopic match, in terms of colour and texture, to the sandstone used in the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasty temples of the Abydos-Thebes region. Shatt el-Rigal quarries.