Ghost of a flea

Perhaps the rarity that made porphyry so desirable had its part in this restraint. Until the mid-18th century, the only known quarries were in the eastern Egyptian desert, the Gebel Dokhan. Intensively exploited from the first to fifth century, the mines were then abandoned. For more than 1,000 years, Ancient Roman porphyry pillars scattered across Europe and the Near East, chopped up for the material to be reused, were the only source of supply.