Mons Claudianus

Mons Claudianus

View of Mons Claudianus from the northeast
Shown within Egypt
Location	Safaga, Red Sea Governorate, Egypt
Region	Upper Egypt
Coordinates	26°48′33″N 33°29′13″E / 26.80917°N 33.48694°E / 26.80917; 33.48694Coordinates: 26°48′33″N 33°29′13″E / 26.80917°N 33.48694°E / 26.80917; 33.48694
Type	Quarry
History
Founded	1st century AD
Abandoned	Middle of the 3rd century AD
Periods	Roman Empire

Mons Claudianus was a Roman quarry in the eastern desert of Egypt. It consisted of a garrison, a quarrying site, and civilian and workers' quarters. Granodiorite was mined for the Roman Empire 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 and Qena, in the present day Red Sea Governorate. Today tourists can see fragments of granite, with several artifacts such as a broken column. A number of texts written on broken pottery (ostraca) have been discovered at the site.

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 Qena on the Nile and Hurghada on the Red Sea, 500 km south of Cairo and 120 km east of the Nile, at an altitude of c.700m in the heart of the Red Sea mountains. About 50 km away is another imperial stone quarry known as Mons Porphyrites,which is the world's only known source of purple porphyry.

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.

Mons Claudianus was an abundant source of Granodiorite for Rome, and was used in notable Roman structures including the emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, public baths, the floors and columns of the temple of Venus, Diocletian's Palace at Split and the columns of the portico of the Pantheon in Rome were quarried at Mons Claudianus. Each was 39 feet (12 m) tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter, and 60 tons in weight.

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 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 sledges, though the terrain from quarry to the Nile is such that the route was downhill the entire length. They were floated by barge down the Nile River when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up the Tiber River to Rome.