Mons Claudianus was a Roman

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

in the eastern desert of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. It consisted of a garrison, a quarrying site, and civilian and workers' quarters.

Granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gr ...

was mined for the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

where it was used as a building material. Mons Claudianus is located in the mountains of the Egyptian Eastern desert about midway between the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

and

Qena Qena ( ar, قنا ' , locally: ; cop, ⲕⲱⲛⲏ ''Konē'') is a city in Upper Egypt, and the capital of the Qena Governorate. Situated on the east bank of the Nile, it was known in antiquity as Kaine ( Greek Καινή, meaning "new (city ...

, in the present day

Red Sea Governorate Red Sea Governorate ( ar, محافظة البحر الأحمر ) is one of the 27 governorates (States) of Egypt. Located between the Nile and the Red Sea in the southeast of the country, its southern border forms part of Egypt's border with ...

. Today tourists can see fragments of granite, with several artifacts such as a broken column. A number of texts written on broken pottery (

ostraca An ostracon ( Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ...

) have been discovered at the site.

Discovery and location

Mons Claudianus lies in the Eastern desert of upper Egypt, and was discovered in 1823 by Wilkinson and Burton. It lies north of Luxor, between the Egyptian town of

on the Nile and

Hurghada Hurghada (; ar, الغردقة ', ) is a city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the Red Sea coast. Overview Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century. For many decades it wa ...

on the Red Sea, 500 km south of Cairo and 120 km east of the Nile, at an altitude of c. 700 m in the heart of the

Red Sea Mountains Itbāy ( ar, اطبيه) or ʿAtbāy is a region of southeastern Egypt and northeastern Sudan. It is characterized by a chain of mountains, the Red Sea Hills, running north–south and parallel with the Red Sea. The hills separate the narrow coas ...

. Van der Veen, Marijke. ''High living in Rome's distant quarries''. British Archaeology, 1997.Van der Veen, Marijke and Hamilton-Dyer, S. "A life of luxury in the desert? Food and fodder supply to Mons Claudianus", ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'' 2 (1998), pp. 101-116 About 50 km away is another imperial stone quarry known as

Mons Porphyrites Mons Porphyrites (today Jabal Abu Dukhkhan) is the mountainous site of a group of ancient quarries in the Red Sea Hills of the Eastern Desert in Egypt. Under the Roman Empire, they were the only known source of the purple "imperial" variety of por ...

, which is the world's only known source of purple porphyry.

Time line

The excavation of Mons Claudianus by the Romans occurred through two centuries, from the 1st century AD to the mid-3rd century AD. There is no evidence of settlements near or at the quarry prior to the Roman settlement. The arid conditions of the desert allowed the documents and organic remains to survive.

Harvesting and use of resources

Mons Claudianus was an abundant source of

for Rome, and was used in notable Roman structures including Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, public baths, the floors and columns of the temple of Venus,

Diocletian's Palace Diocletian's Palace ( hr, Dioklecijanova palača, ) is an ancient palace built for the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, which today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. While it is referred to as a "pala ...

at Split and the columns of the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...

of the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...

in Rome were quarried at Mons Claudianus. Each was tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter, and 60 tons in weight.

Access routes and transport

Mons Claudianus was linked to the river Nile by a traceable surviving Roman road marked by way-stations spaced out at one day intervals. The stones from the quarries, which were shaped in the desert, were then taken along the road to the Nile Valley for trans-shipment to Rome. Documents that were found on site referred to 12-wheeled and 4-wheeled carts, and include a request for delivery of new axles. The journey would last approximately five days or longer. The way-stations, which resembled small defended 'forts', with many rooms accompanied by stabling and a water-supply, served as motels where the men and animals moving the stones could rest, eat and drink.

Donkeys The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

may have been used to transport food and water needed by men between way-stations as well as to pull the wagons; however, for larger loads it seems that both human and animal labour was used. Camels were used for communication and for the transport of food and water. The columns may have also been dragged more than 100 km from the quarry to the river on

wooden sledge Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

s, though the terrain from quarry to the Nile is such that the route was downhill the entire length. They were floated by

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

down the

Nile River The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then transferred to vessels to cross the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

to the Roman port of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up the

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Ri ...

to Rome.

Life in Mons Claudianus

The quarry was administered by the Roman army. The quarry men of Mons Claudianus were a skilled and well-paid civilian workforce, and their lifestyle at the quarry could even be described as luxurious. The Ostraca refer to four groups of people: soldiers and officials; skilled, civilian workers; unskilled workers; and women and children. According to the Ostraca (earthen pots with inscriptions on them) many of the workers at Mons Claudianus earned around 47 drachmas a month -which was about twice as much as their counterparts in the Nile Valley as well as one 'artab' which was approximately 47 pints of wheat. Evidence has been found of 55 different food plants and 20 sources of animal proteins, with donkey being the meat most commonly eaten, probably due to the number that donkeys existed. Fish from the red sea, luxuries like

artichoke The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...

and

citron The citron (''Citrus medica''), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed throu ...

as well as

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

from India and Game animals, snails and oysters were some of the foods available. Findings of seeds of cabbage, leaf beet, lettuce, mint, basil and a few others, which would not have been present if the vegetables were delivered to eat, suggest that, food was both delivered and grown at Mons Claudianus, to maintain the health of the workers with proper iron and vitamin C intake. Germinated, carbonised barley grains have also been found, suggesting that the inhabitants brewed

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

. Imported chaff, straw, barley grain, charcoal and midden material were used for animal fodder, as temper for the making of wall plaster and mud-brick, and for fuel for the ovens and fires. At the Quarries, several columns, some basins and a bath can still be found lying broken; the largest column is 60 ft high and weighs some 200 tonnes. Many buildings still survive intact to roof height. The settlement resembled a fort with walls and projecting towers, and housed an estimated 1,000 people, both quarrymen and guards. The stones from the quarries were shaped in the desert, possibly to reduce their weight, then taken to the Nile Valley to be shipped to Rome.

References

*Peacock, D.P.S. and Maxfield, V.A. (1997) ''Mons Claudianus: Survey and Excavation.'' *''Mons Claudianus. Ostraca graeca et ''. **Vol. I, ed. J. Bingen, A. Bülow-Jacobsen, W.E.H. Cockle, H. Cuvigny, L. Rubinstein and W. Van Rengen. Cairo 1992. (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Documents de Fouilles 29). Nos. 1—190. **Vol. II, ed. J. Bingen, A. Bülow-Jacobsen, W.E.H. Cockle, H. Cuvigny, F. Kayser and W. Van Rengen. Cairo 1997. (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Documents de Fouilles 32). Nos. 191—416. **Vol. III, Les reçus pour avances à la ‘familia,’ ed. H. Cuvigny. Cairo 2000. (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Documents de Fouilles 38). Nos. 417-631. *Herz, Norman. Waelkens, Marc
''Classical marble:geochemistry, technology, trade''
Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 97. *Van der Veen, Marijke

''British Archaeology'', 28. *Myers, Elaine Anne
''The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East:reassessing the sources''
Cambridge University Press, p. 127. *Van der Veen, Marijke
A life of luxury in the desert? The food and fodder supply to Mons Claudianus
''Journal of Roman Archaeology'', 2(101-116).

External links

* {{Authority control Roman Egypt Quarries Mines in Egypt Red Sea Governorate 1st century in Egypt 2nd century in Egypt 3rd century in Egypt