Freitag, 25. Oktober 2013

Where on Google Earth #406

After the completely dry landscape in #405, the next WOGE contains slightly more water, enjoy!

For #405 I was looking at some NE-SW trending mountain ranges in very arid areas like around the Gobi desert and along the ancient silk road, as it was supposed to have historical importance. But at some point I decided to go for lower elevations as many of the asian mountains seem to have snow covered tops. History, wide and dry riverbeds combined with not too high mountains finally guided me to egypt, where it was just a matter of finding the right spot without too much sand in the picture. My guess about a hidden tomb as historic feature turned out to be wrong as it showed roman quarrys where the word porphyry was first used to describe rocks.


Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2013

The Overburden Blog: Where on Google Earth #405

Hi guys,
Found it:
27°12'60.00"N /  33°15'60.00"E
After searching the ancient silk road, i decided to go for egyptian tombs which lead to the right place even thou it's no tomb.

This WOGE shows the site of quarrys, active during ancient egyptian and roman times. Andesite–dacite porphyry and granite was mined to produce ornamental stones. The paths on the mountain slopes in the second picture are slipways where dimension stones were transported in ancient egypt.

Here you can find more information about ancient quarrys in egypt.