Preliminary remarks on enigmatic “white casing limestone” from Saqqara archaeologicalsite in Egypt

Saqqara is one of the fa mous ar chae o log i cal sites in the world. There is the old est stone pyr a mid built by pha raoh Djoser from the Third Dy nasty (around 4600 yrs BP). The com po nents of his fu ner ary com plex were con structed of a char ac ter is tic creamish-white lime stone of rel a tively great so lid ity, con nected in ar chae o log i cal lit er a ture with the white cas ing lime stone from Saqqara. A source of this stone has re mained so far a mys tery. An ex ten sive geo log i cal sur vey and other re search has failed to iden tify any out crops of such lime stone in the vi cin ity of Saqqara. Pre lim i nary re sults of ex am i na tion of fos sils from rel e vant rock sam ples of the white Saqqara lime stone are pre sented, sup ple -mented with dis cus sion of cur rent opin ions con cern ing its or i gin and prob a ble strati graphic set ting.