After the Valley of the Kings ~ Alabaster

Then Temple of Queen Hatshepsut,

ancient Egypt's longest ruling female pharaoh

will be the next posting

But FIRST SHOPPING!!!!! The use of alabaster in Egypt dates well back into the Pharaonic period of Egyptian history, and this is very evident when one visits the temples, tombs and museums in Egypt. New pieces of alabaster from ancient Egypt seem to turn up constantly.

The ancient pharaohs used this wonderful material for many purposes, including household items, ritual objects, and for a number of different funerary purposes such as sarcophaguses and canopic equipment. Some of the finest ancient artifacts made from alabaster can be found in the Tutankhamun collection of the Egyptian museum, where we find a variety of different items made from this material.

In Egypt alabaster is found in two places, a few miles behind the Valley of the Kings in Luxor (ancient Thebes) and the Malawi area . Some Alabaster factories in Luxor and Aswan prefer to get their Alabaster material from Malawi because they can use trucks for transportation, but the road to the area behind the Valley of the Kings is not good enough for trucks to transport the stone, so they still use horses or donkey drawn carts. However, each vein of alabaster has its own unique color and characteristic. It is found in nature in bulky, irregular shapes, in different sizes and at variable depths, mixed with other materials like marls or clay which protect the alabaster from other exterior agents.

Tricks about Alabaster

OUR SHOP!!!!!!