Tura, Egypt

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The limestone from Tura was the finest and whitest of all the Egyptian quarries, so it was used for facing stones for the richest tombs,[http://www.saqqara.nl/context/glossary/tura Tura] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724165646/http://www.saqqara.nl/context/glossary/tura |date=2011-07-24 }} Accessed 2009-06-16 as well as for the floors and ceilings of mastabas, which were otherwise made of mudbrick.[http://xoomer.alice.it/francescoraf/hesyra/helwan.htm Helwan] Accessed July 28 It was used during the Old Kingdom and was the source of the limestone used for the "Rhomboidal Pyramid" or Bent Pyramid of Sneferu,Grimal, Nicholas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p. 109. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988 the Great Pyramid of Khufu,[http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110320/pyramid.htm Great Pyramid] Accessed July 28, 2006 the sarcophagi of many Old Kingdom nobles,Grimal, Nicholas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p. 129. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988 the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom,Grimal, Nicholas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p. 177. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988 and certain temples of the New Kingdom built by at least Ahmose I, who may have used Tura limestone to begin the temple of Ptah at Memphis and the Southern Harem of Amun at Thebes.Grimal, Nicholas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p. 200. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988

The Tura limestone was deep underground and instead of open-pit mining, the carved tunnels to cut large stones out, leaving some limestone behind to support the caverns left behind.[http://www.planetware.com/helwan/quarries-of-masara-and-tura-egy-cai-quar.htm Quarries of Masara and Tura] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155638/http://www.planetware.com/helwan/quarries-of-masara-and-tura-egy-cai-quar.htm |date=2007-09-30 }} Accessed July 28, 2006 These tunnels were surveyed by British Forces in 1941, and in quarry 35, workmen found many loose quires from books by Origen and Didymus the Blind, two Alexandrian Church Fathers. The workers who found them stole them, and although some were seized by the authorities, most are still missing, and turn up on the antiquities market from time to time. It is believed that some of the original books could have been up to 480 pages.[http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/tura_papyri.htm The Tury Discovery of Manuscripts] Accessed July 28, 2006

The caves were adapted by British forces during World War II, initially using them to store a variety of equipment, including munitions.Playfair, Vol. I, page 65. In 1942, it was decided they would serve better as a bomb-proof location for the repair of aircraft engines by the Royal Air Force, and it was the engine repair section under 111 Maintenance Unit that was inspected on 22 August 1942 by Winston Churchill, who recorded that "Everything looked very smart and efficient on the spot, and an immense amount of work was being done day and night by masses of skilled men. But I had my tables of facts and figures and remained dissatisfied. The scale was far too small."Churchill, Winston. The Second World War, Vol IV, The Hinge of Fate, Chapter XXIX, p468 The use of the caves for RAF aircraft engine repairs continued until 1945.

Some fossil taxa of marine ray-finned fish have been described from the quarry, including two soles (Eobuglossus and Turahbuglossus), a grunt (Kemtichthys{{Cite journal |last1=Joleaud |first1=Léonce |last2=Cuvillier |first2=Jean |date=1933 |title=Kemtichthys Sadeki. Nouveau percoïde fossile d'Egypte |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/bie_1110-1938_1933_num_16_1_3300 |journal=Bulletin de l'institut d'Égypte |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=93–98 |doi=10.3406/bie.1933.3300}}), an eel in the extinct genus Mylomyrus (Mylomyrus frangens), and an enigmatic scaleless percoid fish (Blabe). All these fish would have inhabited the oceans that covered the area during the Middle Eocene, between 48.6 and 37.2 million years ago.

• List of ancient Egyptian sites, including sites of temples
• List of types of limestone

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• {{cite book|first1=Major-General I.S.O.|last1=Playfair|author-link1=Ian Stanley Ord Playfair|last3= with Flynn|first3=Captain F.C. (R.N.)|last2=Molony|first2=Brigadier C.J.C.|last4=Gleave|first4= Group Captain T.P.|editor-last=Butler|editor-first=Sir James|editor-link=James Ramsay Montagu Butler|series=History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series|title=The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume I: The Early Successes Against Italy, to May 1941|publisher= Naval & Military Press|location=Uckfield, UK|year=2009|orig-year=1st. pub. HMSO:1954|isbn= 978-1-84574-065-8|name-list-style=amp}}

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Category:Archaeological sites in Egypt

Category:Quarries