Name

Description

Possible Source

Agate

A form of Chalcedony

Alabaster

Calcite.

Eastern Desert (Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt near Amarna)

Amazonite

Amethyst

A violet-coloured quartz

Eastern Desert (near Aswan)

Basalt

A fine grained black igneous rock

Faiyum Depression, Eastern Desert (Middle Egypt)

Breccia

Breccias are detrital sedimentary rocks and consist of a conglomeration of large rock particles. Particle size reveals the strength of the currents that transported the rocks and rounding indicates how far they have travelled.  They can be highly ornamental because of the different shapes and colours that appear.

Carnelian

A form of Chalcedony

Chalcedony

Transparent to translucent or opaque with various different textures.

Chert

Cryptocrustalline silica which appears in bands or layers of nodules in sedimentary rocks.  It has a flat fracture.

Copper

A native element (mineral)

Eastern Desert (Lower Egypt), Sinai (southwest and east), Nubian Desert

Detrital sedimentary rocks

Rocks formed from sediment that has been transported as solid particles derived from mechanical or chemical weathering

Diorite

Igneous coarse-grained rock with visible granules usually associated with granite.

Upper Egypt (near Aswan), Nubian Desert

Dolerite

Medium grained intrusive igneous rock usually in balsitic areas.

Faiyum Depression

Faience

Flint

Flint is a variety of chert which occurs primarily in the Upper Cretaceous (and as Detrital pebbles in the Tertiary).  It has a conchoidal fracture.

Gold

A native element (mineral) often associated with quartz and sulphides.

Eastern Desert, Nubian Desert (several locations), Kush

Granite

Igneous coarse-grained rock in a number of colours depending on the content, crystals large to small depending on the speed with which the rock cooled.

Kush, Nubian Desert, Eastern Desert (Upper Egypt)

Greywacke

An arenaceous rock (Detrital sedimentary). Made of fine to coarse particles.

Eastern Desert

Igneous rock

Formed by the crystallization of material which was molten (heat-liquified) and crystallizes to form silicate minerals which form rocks

Jasper

An opaque form of chalcedony

Eastern Desert (Middle Egypt)

Lapis Lazuli

Semi-precious variety of lazurite.

Limestone

Any sedimentary rock consisting of carbonates

Nile Valley (Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt), Eastern Desert (Middle Egypt)

Malachite

A carbonate which forms in copper regions which have been altered or oxidized.

Nubian Desert, Sinai

Marl clay

Qena

Metamorphic rock

Made by the process of alteration of a previous rock type - usually by heat, pressure or both.

Ochre (red & orange)

A naturally occurring mineral pigment consisting of silica and clay which owes its colour to iron oxide (hematite)

Ochre (yellow)

A naturally occurring mineral pigment consisting of silica and clay which owes it colour to iron oxyhydroxide (limonite)

Quartz

A mineral that occurs in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Colours vary considerably.

Quartzite

Upper Egypt (Aswan area), Lower Egypt (Cairo area)

Rhyolite

Volcanic rocks, similar to granite.

Sandstone

Medium-grained sedimentary rock formed of quartz granules often with other minerals, and found in areas which were formerly marine contexts or in wind-blown deposits

Upper Egypt (Nile area, near Aswan)

Sedimentary rocks

Formed usually ont eh seabed with visible layers.  Others form from weathering and erosion or from the decay of once-living organic components like plants or animals.

Serpentine

Coarse to medium grained igneous rock, with visible crystals, commonly found in metamorphic rock contexts. Greenish-black.

Upper Egypt (near Aswan)

Steatite

Turquoise

Sinai (southwest)