sandstone

Sandstone - Thirty fi ve ancient quarries have been discovered The ascendancy of sandstone as a building material began from the late [|Middle Kingdom] onward, within the sandstone region as well as many of those in the southern part of the limestone region - Sandstone was superior to limestone in terms of size and strength, this facilitated the construction of the huge [|temples] such as [|Abu Simbel] and [|Amun at Karnak] - The rock was also employed for statuary and other non-architectural applications, and produced durable artistic objects statues, stela,
 * South** - Quarries in the [|Nile] valley from [|Esna] southward into northern Sudan supplied the sandstone.