Naxian marble

Naxian marble (commercial name: Alexander Marble) is a large-crystaled white marble which is quarried from the Cycladic Island of Naxos in Greece. It was among the most significant types of marble for ancient Greece and it continues to be quarried in modern times.

The marble's creation is owed to high level metamorphic processes in a contact zone with dome-like bulges of migmatite. The two types of stone alternate in layers and the marble has a thickness of up to 30 metres in old fissures. The layers strike in a northeasterly direction.

Naxian marble is over 98% calcite. Other component minerals as dolomite, silicate and traces of graphite and pyrite. Calcite crystals are randomly distributed and usually transparen. This transparence gives the stone an appearance of depth and is the cause of the blue-grey shimmer of the marble, which is more or less noticeable depending on the angle of the light source. The crystals are up to 15 millimetres in diameter and it is thus one of the largest grained marbles on Earth. In the assessment of Raymond Perrier, it has a resistance to frost and other weathering.

Other parts of the deposit have a grey colour and are clearly striped, which indicates a higher level of impurities. This variant includes the unfinished Kouros of Apollonas in a quarry near Apollonas () at the north end of the island.

In many parts of the deposit, there are grey, black and coloured mineral grains in the calcite crystals of the stone at a microscopic scale, making the crystals appear cloudy. Minor organic impurities are the cause of the slightly bitumen-like smell emitted while the marble is worked; it disappears after working.

Ancient marble quarries are located on Agios Ioannis hill in the north part of Naxos and near Apollonas, as well as in the central region of Melanes (). Some unfinished ancient pieces, like the Kouros of Apollonas or the two Kouroi of Flerio are found in these quarries. Modern quarries are located near the village of Kinidaros () in the central part of the island.

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