Marble tombstones, along with granite ones, are among the most popular among customers. They are really very beautiful, which is predetermined by the high decorative properties of the material itself. This stone is a magnificent work of nature. He has a varied range of colors, wonderful texture, high plasticity. Stone-cutters always willingly and fruitfully work with marble, making various steles from it, creating beautiful bas-reliefs and statues.

Where does the material come from

Manufacturers purchase marble of both domestic and imported origin.

It is rather difficult to buy a foreign rock suitable for making tombstones, although, in principle, imported stone is widely represented on the market.

A lot of stones of unusual colors are brought from Italy, India, China, Greece. Such marble is most often supplied in slabs 2 - 3 cm thick. Such blanks can be used in the construction industry. For example, they can be designed for wall and floor cladding. But you cannot make a monument out of them.

If someone really needs to make a tombstone from these thin slabs, then they have to resort to "splicing" them in order to achieve the required slab thickness. Of course, it is possible to organize the supply of custom stone blanks to order, and this is sometimes practiced. But the cost of such material, of course, turns out to be more expensive.

Marble monuments in Russia

more often they are made from a domestic mineral, which is at least twice (or even all 10) cheaper than imported. There are several deposits in Russia where different marble is mined:

Ufaleiskiy - gray with white stains.

Polevskoy - light gray with white streaks

Koelginsky is the whitest, therefore the most favorite material for ritual products. The word "marble" is associated with it.

You can order marble blocks from a domestic mining enterprise such thickness, which is most preferable for production (usually 8 and 10 cm). In addition, it is possible to purchase pieces of rock of a certain size to create sculptural compositions.

HOW DOES THE PRICE OF MARBLE HEADSTONE FOLD

Most often, in order to facilitate their own efforts and reduce the time required for the manufacture of goods, private workshops immediately order marble blanks for monuments.

They are inexpensive. As a result, a set for a memorial, consisting of a stele 80 cm high, a pedestal and a flower garden, will cost a small-scale wholesale buyer about 2200 - 3200 rubles (if the order is made from the manufacturer). Subsequently, the workshops add 100% to the cost, and all this will cost a retail buyer 5,000-7,000 rubles per stone without decoration.

In Russia, there are deposits of marble of different colors, which gives customers a choice. Most often, they settle for attractive light options. Indeed, the white marble stele looks elegant. But one must understand that this stone is more susceptible to deterioration and decay, since in itself it is much more porous than granite, which means that moisture, spores and plant seeds can more easily penetrate into it.

Pigment and mud spots quickly appear on light marble, moss and lichen begin to grow. Even with regular professional care, such a monument gradually loses its original appearance.

KARELIAN GRANITE

Therefore, the most popular stone for making tombstones is Karelian granite - gabbro-diabase. Its deep mourning black color looks very appropriate in the cemetery and gives the grave a majestic look.

Want to know what the capital is spending billions on? I returned from another trip to the Urals, where I filmed the 500th production in my life. In addition to industrial photographs, dirty clothes and dusty cameras, I brought a terrible secret with me.

58 photos

Photos and text by Dmitry Chistoprudov

1. Bashkiria. Quiet and picturesque places of the South Urals. In villages, consider selling potatoes, river fish and fresh kumis for nothing. The beauty! But as soon as you turn off the road onto some dusty primer, you will definitely find yourself in some kind of production, cut or quarry.

The Ural is a treasury of various minerals. Back in school, in geography lessons, we were told that the Ural mountain system is one of the oldest, formed 200-400 million years ago. Of the 55 types of the most important minerals that were developed in the USSR, 48 are represented in the Urals.

2. Meet - this is granite. Igneous rock. Granite is one of the densest, hardest and most durable rocks on earth. It is widely used in construction as a facing and road material.

3. Mansurovskoe deposit - the largest in the country for the extraction of block stone. Mansurovsky granite is mined in a single place, near the Bashkir city of Uchaly. This type of rock is considered one of the oldest granites in Russia and on the entire planet, with a geological age of 350 million years. According to geologists, the proven reserves of the field will last another 200 years.

4. The lightest of all Russian granites is mined here. For its soft wavy texture and milky light gray color, Mansurovsky granite is often compared to marble, it is not for nothing that it has conquered the international space and is considered one of the most popular "made in Russia" granites abroad.

It is this granite that is now being laid throughout Moscow and in particular on Tverskaya Street. 90% of the tiles, curbs and paving stones that the city buys now come from the Urals (the rest from Karelia). Five quarries in the Urals (Mansurovsky is the largest) and more than 30 stone cutting enterprises are working to supply granite for the reconstruction program "My Street".

5. The method of extracting granite blocks differs from the ones I am used to in iron ore, limestone quarries or coal mines. If in the latter the mineral is hammered, crushed and crushed, then here the opposite is true. The geological features of the bedding of the rock make it possible to extract it in sufficiently large blocks, which are convenient to work with in the future. This explains the relatively low cost of such a beautiful and high-quality material, although, of course, the technology of casting from concrete is cheaper.

6. The more you can break off the block, the more it costs. But not everything is as easy as it seems. Granite is one of the most durable rocks for a reason. The average density of the rock is 2600 kg / m, 3. To break off such an even piece, you need to try hard.

7. The process of extracting granite is similar to the process of eating a truffle cake layer by layer. Granite is deposited in layers. A part of the rock is separated from the massif, which is then divided into smaller blocks.

8. There are several methods for cutting off pieces of "cake". One of them is with large gas burners. The composition of granite includes quartz, which peels off and flies off under the influence of temperature. Thus, the burner gradually cuts through the granite. The more quartz in granite, the larger the grains, and the faster the rock is cut. In this way, a cross section of the piece is made.

10. A special chemical solution is poured into the drilled holes, which creates a "soft explosion". Inside a cramped hole, the mixture expands, splits and shifts the granite block.

12. All workers are local (albeit tanned).
- Guys, let me take a picture of you now. Can you hit with sledgehammers somehow at the same time?
- Listen, let's better give you a sledgehammer, and we'll take it off ourselves?

13. Gradually hammering in a row of wedges, the rock cracks and voila, the new block is separated.

14. There is another method - wire sawing. It is used in the Yuzhno-Sultaevsky quarry. The bottom line is that instead of gas burners, a tricky wire rope cutter is used.

15. The rope is passed through the drilled holes. Gradually, the installation drives off along the guides, and in a few hours a huge piece is cut.

20. Finished blocks are transported by loaders or dump trucks to the sawmill of the quarry. Or sold as is to other sawmills.

22. Until recently, the entire stone mining industry was in a deplorable state. Due to the crisis, the demand of other cities for granite products fell. On the other hand, private traders began to look more and more towards the Russian stone. The course changed, and Chinese granite rose sharply.

This is what a standard granite curb and tile workshop looked like two years ago.

23. After the launch of the My Street program, the Ural enterprises began to revive. If before the Moscow order the Mansurovsky quarry produced about 3,000 cubic meters of granite per month, now this figure is twice as high.

24. With the first money from orders, new equipment was purchased, new workshops were built. The large volume of order has breathed life into the entire industry. Adjacent enterprises for the production of packaging, wire rod, timber, fuels and lubricants, various equipment, etc. The equipment, however, was purchased entirely imported (except for dump trucks and cranes). Here is such an import substitution, however.

26. Extractive companies are doing well. The money earned could have simply been swallowed or plundered, but as we can see, production is developing and equipment is being updated.

27. If marble slabs are cut at one time, then granite has to be cut for a very long time. The saw blade walks back and forth on the slab, lowering only 1 cm at a time. Large chunks of granite are sawn for hours.

28. Massive blocks are sawn into slabs, smaller blocks are dismantled onto curbs. Any little thing, such as paving stones, does not require large blanks and is sawn (or pricked) from slab scraps.

30. To speed up the cutting process, there are such large and cunning wire saws.

31. On such machines it is possible to saw slabs into 10 blocks with a height of more than two meters.

34. The quality of the cut is perfect.

35. An Italian master supervises the setting of the equipment.

36. To prevent passersby from sliding on the tiles in winter, the surface is heat treated.

37. Tiles become rough and not as slippery as polished granite.

38. New workshop, and finished products of the quarry. This curbstone is already being laid on Tverskaya Street. More than 3 kilometers of straight side and 500 meters of radius were ordered for it.

39. These curbs and tiles are 350 million years old, just a minute!

41. Chipped paving stones.

42. To deliver the tiles and curbs to Tverskaya, it took 364 trucks, which brought 7,271 tons of granite - this is an area of \u200b\u200b33.5 thousand square meters.

By weight, it's like spreading thirty Boeing 747s across Tverskaya.

43. In total, this year Moscow has ordered 47,500 tons of granite products. This is 2,374 trucks or 220,000 square meters of coverage. What is comparable to the area 30 football fields! This is to the question that Muscovites are too hungry. In a sense, this is certainly true, the capital is the richest city in the country, but the money for its renovation goes to the regions where production rises.

In terms of the cost of its extraction, processing and delivery, granite is inferior to similar concrete products. But there are also pluses:

Granite has low water absorption and high resistance to frost and dirt. Concrete absorbs moisture better.
- concrete is abraded, it is more dusty than granite.
- concrete slabs are produced at the plant, and granite is produced by nature itself.

44. Each quarry has its own texture and shade of granite. If you look at the scheme of laying tiles on the streets of Moscow, you can see a certain pattern in the drawing. The tiles of different colors came from different quarries.

45. At the Tashmurun quarry darker granite is mined than the Mansurovsky. The quarry itself is smaller.

48. Kambulatovsky quarry.

50. This quarry ranks first in terms of the efficiency of production of cubic meters of products per worker.

51. Yuzhno-Sultaevsky quarry with large beautiful cranes.

53. In general, I have everything. I would just like to clarify that if you choose granite instead of concrete, this does not mean that everything will automatically be fine. Nothing like this. Without the right styling technology, anything will fall apart. If you make a backing of shit and branches, then after the first winter the sidewalk / steps / curbs will float and burst from the uneven load.

55. It is not enough to buy a granite curb, it still needs to be correctly installed. This curb, albeit crooked, was installed 10 years ago.

56. And this is his peer, a concrete border.

57. This is how it is, granite. Meet on the streets of Moscow, Novosibirsk, Salekhard, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Astana, Baku and so on according to the list.

58. So you will walk along Tverskaya or any other reconstructed street, remember that you are touching a history that is 350 million years old!

See also “Nazarovskiy coal mine. They could have filmed Mad Max here

Translated from Greek, marble means "shining, shining stone". It was the ability of marble to transform in the rays of the sun, to show the eye every time a new, unique play of light that made the ancient Greeks pay attention to this material, erect dozens of temples from it, sculpt statues, the grace and plasticity of which we admire hundreds of years later (the whites marbles, the first signs of "age-related changes" appear only after 100-150 years). In addition, marble has a whole range of properties that allow it to remain one of the most popular natural building materials: it is plastic, easy to polish and grind. Marble is quite viscous and strong, so it does not split immediately upon impact, allowing you to carve products of various shapes.

Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting mainly of the minerals CaCO3 calcite or CaMg (CO3) 2 dolomite. It is harder than limestone and dolomite (their original materials), but softer than igneous rocks. The marble is very beautiful in cut and polishes well, which made it also one of the main cladding materials. Marble is a type of limestone, so it can be either soft and capable of absorbing moisture, or rather hard and almost impervious to water.

Marble has a low coefficient of water absorption (0.08-0.12%), so it can be used for finishing bathrooms, swimming pools, fountains. It practically does not absorb moisture, therefore, when exposed to low temperatures, it does not threaten the appearance of microcracks from a freezing liquid. Marble products can be safely used in cold rooms. Also, marble is not exposed to high temperatures, which allows it to be used for the manufacture of fireplaces or used for finishing rooms with temperatures significantly higher than usual. As a natural material, it has porosity and is able to "breathe" - this creates a favorable microclimate in the room.

Trevi Fountain, Rome (1732-1762)

Until now, the word "marble" is used to refer to different species that are similar to each other. Builders call marble any durable, polished limestone. Sometimes a similar breed of serpentinite is taken for marble. True marble on a light fracture resembles sugar. Thanks to the impurities, this stone becomes variegated, spotted, moire, twisted and veined. A layer of pure white marble up to 30 centimeters thick shines through. Marble almost always contains admixtures of other minerals, as well as organic compounds. Impurities have a different effect on the quality of marble, reducing or increasing its decorative effect. The color of marble also depends on impurities. Most colored marbles are variegated in color. Whimsical patterns or uniform shade of marble surface have been created by nature for thousands of years, each slab has its own unique and inimitable pattern. A wide selection of colors and shades allows it to be used in various interiors in a wide variety of qualities - stairs, columns, facing pools and portals, furniture elements, framing doorways and windows, souvenirs, etc.

Due to its decorative properties, marble is widely used. Both large interior elements - stairs, wall panels, columns, and smaller, decorative details - tabletops, window sills, figurines, vases can be made of marble. According to their decorative qualities, scope and possible processing methods, marbles are divided into white, gray and colored. White marble is too fragile for external work: it can become stained and yellow from meteorological influences. Gray marbles are easy to process, polish well, and are less affected by the external environment. Therefore, they are widely used for both external and internal cladding.

Moscow metro, station "Kurskaya"

Colored marbles come in a wide variety of colors - from yellow and pink to green or black. It is not uncommon for marble to have veins of a different color, and such marble is considered especially valuable because of its high aesthetic qualities. The pattern is determined not only by the structure of the marble, but also by the direction in which the stone is cut. The color and pattern of marble appears after it has been polished.
Marble has been used since antiquity as a structural and facing architectural material due to its plastic and decorative advantages (hardness; fine grain, making marble pliable in processing, capable of receiving polishing, through which the tonal richness of marble and the beauty of its homogeneous, spotty or layered structure are revealed). Marble is also used to create mosaic compositions, reliefs and round statues (mainly monochromatic marble, mostly white, less often colored or black).

Where is marble mined?

The deposits of marble are scattered all over the world. Ancient Greek marble from the Pantelikon quarries northeast of Athens was famous. All classical ancient Greek architectural structures were built from this stone. Golden-yellow traces of weathering gave a special beauty to this marble. Now the Greek deposits are completely depleted. White marble is now best known, which is mined near the city of Carrara in Tuscany in northern Italy. The stone lies along the entire slope of the Apuan Alps up to the very crest of the ridge. Marble was taken from the local quarries back in ancient Rome. Then they were forgotten for a long time and remembered again in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The deposits of pure white stone here seem inexhaustible. Milky white marble is mainly mined here, sometimes with a slight bluish tint. There is also a pure white stone that sculptors appreciate. The great Michelangelo was looking for a particularly light stone for his works in the development of Monte Altissimo - the highest peak of the ridge.

Deposits of marble have been found in different parts of Russia. Most of all, more than 20 deposits are located in the Urals, but stone is mined from only 8 deposits: white marble is obtained at the Koelginsky and Aydyrlinsky deposits, gray marble is produced by the Ufaleiskaya and Mramorskaya deposits, yellow marble comes from the Oktyabrsky and Pochinsky quarries, black marble is brought by the Pershinskoe deposit, a pink-red stone is produced by the Nizhne-Tagil deposit.
One of the most famous Ural deposits is the village of Mramorskoye northeast of the city of Polevskoye, Sverdlovsk Region. The marble deposit has been known here since the 18th century. In 1738, marble mining began, and a settlement arose - the Mramorsky Factory. Even in those distant times, when the first miners searched for iron ores here, they met numerous marble outcrops in a vast area south of Yekaterinburg. This is evidenced by applications for the discovery of this valuable ornamental stone.

Marble quarry.

The foundation of the village dates back to 1738, when large reserves of this valuable ornamental stone were discovered eight versts from the Kosobrod fortress. Gornoshchitskaya marble quarrying - this was the name originally given to the future settlement. A mill for cutting and polishing marble was built in the neighboring Seversk plant. Later, on the Chusovaya River, a pier was opened for sending polished marble boards to St. Petersburg. Already in the middle of the 18th century. marble stone cutters became famous, the heroes of many Bazhov's tales, who carried this glory to our days. For two centuries the plant has produced thousands of products: marble vases and bowls, monuments in St. Petersburg, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo.

Extraction of marble.

A modern marble quarry is located 6 km north-west of the plant and the village. The multi-ton marble cubes that catch the eye immediately after the railway crossing speak of his approach. A visit to the quarry leaves a strong impression. The deep, ledged cut is equipped with modern stone cutting machines and hoisting winches. Marble monoliths are loaded into heavy trucks and transported to the marble factory, to the sawing shop located near the railway station, from where, after sawing and grinding, the marble goes to different parts of our country. Metro stations, underpasses, lobbies of theaters, hotels and much more in the cities of the country are decorated with Ural marble.

Yekaterinburg, railway station.

Another one of the most famous marble deposits is the Ruskeala (Karelia) marble mines on the Belaya and Zelenaya mountains, named after the color of the marbles composing them. The very first marble mining began here at the end of the 17th century by the Swedes, mainly for obtaining construction lime, less often for the construction of foundations and walls of buildings in the vicinity. Industrial mining of Ruskeala marble began after 1768, and in the first, most difficult years, the experienced mining engineer Kozhin was entrusted. The main work on the extraction of marble (from 1769 to 1830) was carried out on Mount Belaya. The local marble was mainly used to decorate the Isaac Cathedral of Rinaldi and Montferrand (1818-1858). Part of this stone was used to make window frames for the Marble Palace, facing the southern facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle, making window boards in the Winter Palace, erecting a pedestal for the monument to Peter I in front of the Mikhailovsky Castle, and other buildings and structures in St. Petersburg.

Marble Palace, St. Petersburg.

Also, marble from Mount Belaya was used in the construction of: the Oryol Gate (1772 A. Rinaldi), the frieze of the Catherine Palace (1782-1785. Camefon), etc. ”, A quarry began to operate on Zelenaya Gora, located not far from Belaya Mountain. It is known that more than 200 thousand tons of marble were mined in the "main marble quarrying" of Ruskeala (1769 to 1830). Most of this stone was sent to Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo and Gatchina, a smaller part, in the form of a roundabout and rubble, was stored in dumps. It is noteworthy that Ruskeala's underground workings passed practically without fastening arches and walls, which was explained by the low fracturing and resistance of rocks to collapse. Nowadays no marble is mined in Ruskeale, now there are excursions for tourists in this quarry.

Ruskeala marble mining (Karelia)

Marble is also mined in other regions of Russia. More than 50 marble deposits are known in Altai and Western Siberia, and three deposits are being developed here: the Pashtulim deposit gives a unique fine-grained white marble with red-green veins, lilac-pink stone is obtained at the Gramatushinsky deposit, gray-cream marble is produced by the Petenevsky quarry. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, there is a large Kibik-Kordonskoye deposit, where there are more than twenty varieties of white, pale cream, pale pink, orange, yellow and greenish-gray marble.

The Burovschina deposit in the Irkutsk region gives a reddish-pink coarse-grained stone with lilac, orange, green, gray tints. Moscow metro stations "Marksistskaya", "Tretyakovskaya" and others are decorated with this marble. In the Far East, a deposit of green marble with different shades has recently been explored and prepared for mining. In the Leningrad region, at the Elizovsky deposit, a gray-brown stone is mined, reminiscent of the famous American granite "dacotamahogany". Nowadays marble is widely used in everyday human activities. Buildings and structures created using stone for a long period (centuries and millennia) retain their strength and decorative properties. Thus, a living environment is created, architecture is formed, which serves as one of the main criteria for the level of culture of a nation, civilization and all of humanity.

Moscow subway.

The practical significance of marble mining in industry is evidenced by the following comparison: the turnover of the marble industry is more than 2.5 times higher than the turnover of the diamond mining industry. Both diamond and marble are traditionally used for the manufacture of luxury goods and, accordingly, are targeted at a specific market segment. In many countries (Italy, Spain, China. India, etc.) this industry is an essential part of the national economy, as evidenced by the sales volumes and the share of stone in the export-import balance. Russia has great potential for the development of its stone-mining and stone-processing industries, but there are a lot of problems in this industry. After the collapse of the USSR, deposits of highly decorative varieties of marble remained in Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and today Russia can only produce blocks of ordinary colors, which on the international market have a price that does not cover the costs of manufacturers. There are interesting deposits of marble in the Irkutsk region, in South Yakutia and on the Kola Peninsula, but there are simply no roads to these deposits.

If you add up the costs of their construction with the cost of mining and processing, then the price of mined marble turns out to be so high that no one will buy it, it is easier to buy and bring it from Greece or Turkey. The lack of roads and to less distant deposits leads to the fact that it is cheaper to buy a finished slab abroad and bring it to Russia than untreated blocks from these deposits. It is also important that manufacturers of stone mining equipment and the main suppliers of synthetic diamonds for stone processing also ended up outside Russia, and high customs duties made the products of domestic enterprises using these components uncompetitive.

Even if you have never been to the city on the Neva, at least in the photographs you have seen the most beautiful St. Isaac's and Kazan Cathedrals, the Mikhailovsky Castle and the Hermitage. Why did I name them exactly? Yes, everything is simple, it was in the decoration of these structures that marble mined in Ruskeala was used. St. Isaac's Cathedral was faced with it, the floors of the Kazan Cathedral were laid, the windowsills of the Hermitage were made, the windows of the Marble Palace and the facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle were framed. The underground halls of the Primorskaya and Ladozhskaya stations of the St. Petersburg metro are also decorated with Ruskeala marble.
Today marble in Ruskeale is no longer mined, and the quarry itself has been turned into a tourist park.

Ruskeala marble quarries are located 25 km north of the city of Sortavala, on the high bank of the rapids river Tohmajoki ("mad, bad"), near the ancient village of Ruskeala. The name of the village probably comes from the local name of the river Tohmayoki - Ruskolka (from the Karelian "ruskea" - brown, red, red), in which the water is always brown, auburn due to iron compounds dissolved in it.
With the coming to power of Catherine II, a large-scale search for natural stone for the construction of St. Petersburg began in Russia. The stone was also searched for in the Vyborg province, including in the area of \u200b\u200bSerdobol and Ruskeala. In August 1765, an apprentice stone craftsman Andrei Pilyugin came to Ruskeala to inspect the deposits of marble from St. Petersburg.
On August 9, 1766, trial marble mining began in Ruskeale, which showed good prospects for the deposit. In September 1767, mining inspectors arrived in Ruskeala from the capital - Guard Captain Kozhin and Colonel Ivan Vasilyevich Zverev. They examined the deposit and drew up a report on the work done. As a result, on January 19, 1768, Empress Catherine II signed a Senate decree on the beginning of the development of marble in Ruskeala for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. On the banks of the Ruskolka River from the Urals came master masons with their families - this is how the working village of Ruskeala arose.

Since 1769 Ruskeala marble quarries were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Commission for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The mining operations were initially directed by Italian masters. The main quarrying of marble was carried out on Mount Belaya, named after the color of the marble that composes it, light gray, bluish-gray in color, with thin white and gray veins.
In the 1770s and 1780s, Ruskeala marbles were widely used by the architect Antonio Rinaldi to decorate the Marble Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral (in St. Petersburg), triumphal columns to the glory of Russian arms and the Orlovs (in Tsarskoye Selo and Gatchina). It is noteworthy that at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the Ruskeala lands belonged to Countess Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya.

In the 1790s, when the Ruskeala quarries were practically inactive, the architect V. Brenna used the local marble to decorate the Mikhailovsky Castle, the monument to Peter I, the Rumyantsev Victories obelisk in the capital and the Eagle Pavilion in Gatchina.

In 1819, the extraction of marble was resumed in Ruskeale to decorate the new St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was built for 40 years by the project of the architect Auguste Ricardo Montferrand.

From 1898 to 1939 the Ruskeala deposit was intensively developed for lime, decorative chips, crushed stone and facing blocks by the Ruskeala Marble Joint Stock Company

After the war, in the autumn of 1944, the restoration of the Ruskeala lime plant and marble quarries began.

The development of marble from the Ruskeala deposit at the Ruskeala-1 site was completed in the late 1980s.

In 2005, the Ruskeala Mountain Park was formed, which is a unique technogenic natural and landscape tourist object.

Today the Ruskeala park is perhaps one of the most visited places in Karelia by tourists.
Here you can just walk and admire the natural beauties, you can tickle your nerves by walking along a stretched rope bridge, flying over the canyon or jumping from a 20-meter height. Diving enthusiasts can dive to the bottom of the quarry.
But in my opinion, the best thing to do here is to take a boat and take a leisurely ride, looking at the patterns on the marble walls and swimming into small grottoes. The main thing to remember is that swimming and jumping into the water from boats is strictly prohibited.

If you are planning to come to the park, do not forget comfortable shoes without heels and mosquito repellent (if you come here during the warm season), because ever-hungry Karelian mosquitoes are included in the program of visiting the park)). And of course, I would advise you to come here on weekdays, because on weekends in good weather it is like in the Moscow metro at rush hour. We even waited an hour and a half on a weekday for the boat to get free, because. there are few boats, but many willing.

Publishing a report by designer Harry Daniell.

He has his own company and his work can be seen in different parts of the world, not only in New York, where his head office is located.

I must admit it was quite interesting when I entered the underground marble quarry.

The same entrances and exits are used here since the beginning of the development of the marble quarry. I can't even imagine how many square meters were mined and removed from the quarry.

But, according to the workers, the productivity of this marble quarry is more than 4000 square meters of finished slabs (slabs) per day.

So we entered ... and made a long way on foot along a not very clean "road" to the place where we should be shown how a marble block is breaking off.

To be honest, I expected to see a very different picture. I thought that part of the marble wall would be torn off and a bunch of debris would fly and there would be a lot of dust.

But as it turned out, everything was quite simple and the whole process was managed by only three employees of the marble quarry.

We all froze in anticipation ...

One of the workers controlled a huge excavator and guided the bucket into the crack between the marble block and the main rock, the second controlled the process and gave instructions so that everything was perfect, and the third was in the excavator cabin and, on command, moved the marble block in the right direction.

After the excavator with its huge fingers moved a block of marble to a critical point, it quietly and accurately fell onto the prepared pile of quarry rubbish with minimal damage to the stone.

Each block on a marble quarry is marked with certain symbols so that you know where it was taken from.

Since the pattern can be very different, and in some place it can be darker, somewhere lighter, such marks help in the future to navigate and sort the marble by color, grain size and other parameters.

Here, with the help of diamond saws, chipped blocks from the marble wall are sawn into smaller blocks.

After that, the stone blocks are transported to another part of the marble quarry, where there are strip machines that cut them into slabs.

On this machine, with the help of diamond saws (strips), slabs (slabs) of a certain thickness are cut.

As a rule, their standard thickness is 20 and 30 millimeters.

From here the slabs are moved to the next zone of the marble quarry ...

In this area, the slabs are passed through a conveyor polishing machine, where the slab goes through the entire grinding process and then polished to a high gloss.

Then the slabs are placed in the storage areas of the marble quarry. From where they are already sent to the warehouse of stone-processing companies or directly to the facility, where they will be used to produce marble products.

Now I have become more choosy, and now, before deciding on marble for my projects, I will look and select certain slabs in the warehouse.

The fact is that natural marble is heterogeneous and can vary greatly depending on the place of the marble quarry from which it was taken. It can be more striped, vary in graininess, color and pattern, so it is important to choose a slab that is ideal for the design project.

I really enjoyed the tour of the largest underground marble quarry in the world, I learned a lot about stone and if you have the opportunity, be sure to visit this quarry.

See you Harry Daniel

Here is such a report.

By the way, it is possible that Fabio Viale picked up a 5-ton marble block precisely in such a quarry to make the world's only ""

This is how marble is mined in an open pit

And now I propose to watch a video about how marble is mined in an open pit in Italy.

Usually mining videos are not very interesting to watch, but this film is shot very well.