This time will be a bit different.
Admittedly there aren't that many clues, but I have picked something from classic history. No, not a battle site nor the site of a long-lost city. Something relevant. ;)
As always, the task is to find out where it is, what it is, and post it in a comment here.
Whoever first supplies the (or "a") correct answer, gets to host the next WoGE.
Previous WoGEs are collected by Felix on his blog and a KML file, along with the "rules".
A week later and time for a hint or two:
It may not look much like it, but this has to do with colour. Something was named for a colour and gave name to a texture.
Oblique view of one of the - well, that would give it all away?
Well, all places are relevant!
SvarSlettFor example ... I know, for a fact, that my name, correctly written, is relevant *to me* (at least)! ;)
By the way ... should I "follow the shadows" or ...
I figured that this one doesn't NEED extra trickery, so the shadows are on the "correct" side.
SvarSlettI found
SvarSletta twin! :(
Denne kommentaren har blitt fjernet av forfatteren.
SlettImpressive, Luis!
SvarSlettUnfortunately, after looking carefully around the area where the solution is, it's not even close. :(
And it's too early to give clear hints, or even cryptic ones. ;)
Well, close or not, until I see some hints (and one that really helps me) I'm done with this one! 2 hours with GE (plus 1 yesterday) is too much for me (and my eyes)!
SvarSlettOh, I've given two hints already: Something geology-related from classic history... ;)
SvarSlettHi guys,
SvarSlettFound 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 show 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.
veidos, your location is correct but your chronology is off by a couple of centuries. Also, this porphyry is rather special - care to elaborate?
SvarSlettSure, somehow skipped wikipedia in my search.
SvarSlettAbout the active period i am not really wrong, but the main focus should lie in roman times. The quarry is called "Gabal Abu Dukhan" and Pliny the Elder mentioned the porphyry in his "Naturalis Historia". It was known as "Imperial porphyry" and used for red togas on busts of emperors as well as for columns all over Rome and Byzantine (e.g. at Hagia Sophia).
for ancient egyptien quarrys visit this site, there is even a map of the quarry site in a .pdf showing the housing areas of the workers.
http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Harrell/Egypt/AGRG_Home.html
Small objects made of red porphyry are known from ancient Egyptian sites, but these were all made from small stones or boulders found in teh desert. The source of these pretty red rocks was unknown until 18 AD, when a Roman legionary named Caius Cominius Leugas found the source in one of the most inhospitable and inaccessible places in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Not being easily deterred by mere physical and geographical hardships, the Romans soon had several quarries operating here. The one served by the ramp in picture #2 is called the "Lykabettos Quarry".
SvarSlettThe quarries were worked until about the 4th century, and were then lost. Several attempts were made to find them, but it was only when the Eastern Desert was reopened for study under Muhammad Ali that the site was rediscovered by Burton and Wilkinson in 1823.
The strange thing is that the rock was called porphyry because of its red colour. The term "porphyry" is from Greek and means "purple". Purple was the color of royalty, and the "Imperial Porphyry" was a deep purple igneous rock with large crystals of plagioclase. This rock was prized for various monuments and building projects in Imperial Rome and later.
And now, "porphyritic" means a rock having large crystals in a fine(r)-grained matrix..
Over to you, veidos!
Thanks, the new one is already online:
SvarSletthttp://blog-veidos.blogspot.ch/2013/10/where-on-google-earth-406.html
enjoy it,
David