The
limestone from Tura was the finest and whitest of all the Egyptian quarries, so it was used for facing stones for the richest tombs, as well as for the floors and ceilings of
mastabas, which were otherwise made of mudbrick. It was used during the
Old Kingdom and was the source of the limestone used for the "Rhomboidal Pyramid" or
Bent Pyramid of
Sneferu, the
Great Pyramid of
Khufu, the
sarcophagi of many Old Kingdom nobles, the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom, and certain temples of the
New Kingdom built by at least
Ahmose I, who may have used Tura limestone to begin the temple of
Ptah at
Memphis and the Southern Harem of Amun at
Thebes. The Tura limestone was deep underground and instead of
open-pit mining, the quarrymen carved tunnels to cut large stones out, leaving some limestone behind to support the caverns left behind. These tunnels were surveyed by British Forces in 1941, and in quarry 35, workmen found many loose
quires from books by
Origen and
Didymus the Blind, two
Alexandrian
Church Fathers. The workers who found them stole them, and although some were seized by the authorities, most are still missing, and turn up on the antiquities market from time to time. It is believed that some of the original books could have been up to 480 pages. The caves were adapted by British forces during World War II, initially using them to store a variety of equipment, including munitions. In 1942, it was decided they would serve better as a bomb-proof location for the repair of aircraft engines by the
Royal Air Force, and it was the engine repair section under 111 Maintenance Unit that was inspected on 22 August 1942 by
Winston Churchill, who recorded that "Everything looked very smart and efficient on the spot, and an immense amount of work was being done day and night by masses of skilled men. But I had my tables of facts and figures and remained dissatisfied. The scale was far too small." The use of the caves for RAF aircraft engine repairs continued until 1945. == Paleontology ==