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The term porphyry is from the Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphyra), meaning "purple". Purple was the colour of royalty, and the Roman "imperial porphyry" was a deep purple igneous rock with large crystals of plagioclase. Some authors claimed the rock was the hardest known in antiquity. [3]
Mons Porphyrites (today Jabal Abu Dukhkhan) is the mountainous site of a group of ancient quarries in the Red Sea Hills of the Eastern Desert in Egypt.Under the Roman Empire, they were the only known source of the purple "imperial" variety of porphyry.
Porphyry (geology), an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix, often purple, and prestigious Roman sculpture material; Shoksha porphyry, quartzite of purple color resembling true porphyry mined near the village of Shoksha, Karelia, Russia; Porphyritic, the general igneous texture of a rock with two distinct crystal ...
Porphyry made the emperors unapproachable in terms of power and nature, belonging to another world, the world of the mighty gods, present for a short time on earth. [15] Porphyry also stood in for the physical purple robes Roman emperors would wear to show their status because of its purple colouring.
Porphyry of Tyre (/ ˈ p ɔːr f ɪr i /; Koinē Greek: Πορφύριος, romanized: Porphýrios; c. 234 – c. AD 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher born in Tyre, Roman Phoenicia [1] during Roman rule.
The Ludovisi sarcophagus, an example of the battle scenes favored during the Crisis of the Third Century: the "writhing and highly emotive" Romans and Goths fill the surface in a packed, anti-classical composition [1] 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting the Labours of Hercules, a popular subject for sarcophagi Sarcophagus of Helena (d. 329) in porphyry
Mons Claudianus was an abundant source of Granodiorite for Rome, and was used in notable Roman structures including Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, public baths, the floors and columns of the temple of Venus, Diocletian's Palace at Split and the columns of the portico of the Pantheon in Rome were quarried at Mons Claudianus. Each was 39 feet ...
Sarcophagus of Helena. The Sarcophagus of Helena is the red porphyry coffin in which Saint Helena, the mother of emperor Constantine the Great, was buried (died 329).The coffin, deprived of its contents for centuries, was removed from the Mausoleum of Helena at Tor Pignatarra, just outside the walled city of Rome.