Ancient Egyptian Origins of Some Common Rock Names

Abstract

Alabaster, basalt, ophiolite, porphyry and syenite are rock names that have their origins in ancient Egypt. Alabaster comes from the Greco-Roman alabastrites, a variety of travertine named for the Alabastrum region of the Nile Valley where it was quarried. Basalt is derived, through a transcription error, from the Greco-Roman basanite which is a transliteration of the pharaonic bekhen-stone, a graywacke sandstone/siltstone quarried at Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert. Ophiolite and porphyry are obtained from the Roman names of two other Eastern Desert quarry stones: ophites, a gabbro from Wadi Semna, and porphyrites, an andesite/dacite porphyry from Gebel Dokhan. Syenite comes from the Roman syenites, a granite named for the Greco-Roman city of Syene at the first Nile cataract where it was quarried. Syene is a transliteration of the pharaonic Swenet and evolved into the Arabic Aswan, the modern name for the city.