الفهرس 
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Limestone quarries are huge in volume and have natural stone which used in building and conservation of archeological sites. Detailed study of the possible
process and mechanisms of weathering of the historical sites are needed before
conservation. The unplanned or random conservation of a given historical site
results in more and rapid damage instead of conservation of the structure. Based
on these considerations, the current study has been conducted with attention to the
oolitic limestone that had been used either for building or excavation during the
Greco–Roman period on the coast of the Mediterranean sea of Egypt, and still used
for building or restoration at the present time. Different tools have been used to
determine the textural, mineralogical characteristics, geotechnical properties and
durability of oolitice limestone quarries to decide which is more durable on macro
and micro-scale.
There is limited difference among these quarries in rock’s texture from
packstone to wackestone with composition of oosparite to oo-microspar. The main
mineral composition of this stone is calcite with silica as secondary mineral. The
investigation of the geotechnical properties of the collected carbonate rock samples
has indicated that the quarries under investigation are oolitic limestones that have a
range of porosity 19.9 % to 33.6 % and bulk density from 1.9 to 2.2 gm/cm3 but it
has been clearly that the total porosity is not the main controlling factor for its
susceptibility to weathering, but the PSD defines rock’s SSI.
Conducting the durability test using Na2SO4 salt for 15 cycles allowing
hydration / dehydration cycles over these cycles indicating that the pore size range
is the main controlling parameter for rock’s susceptibility to salt weathering as
II
indicated in this study. Simply, the facies with PSD in the range of 0.1–1 μm
experience higher SSI than others with PSD range more or less than this range.
The samples of quarries number (4, 5 and 7) present the lowest weight loss (%)
(i.e. the highest rock durability) on exposure to soundness test as their weight loss
after 15 cycles of the test ranges from 3.24 to 5.37 % with durability class ranges
from A to B, while the others for quarries numbers (1, 2, 3, 6 and 8) experienced
considerably high weight loss ranges from 15.02 % to 67.71% with durability class
from C to E.
Finally, the oolitic limestone of the quarries number 4, 5 and 7 are good
samples for such resisting salt weathering if compared with the same rock of
quarries number 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 the net results must be considered during
selection of reconstruction oolitic limestone from these quarries to permit longer
and best results for such reconstruction.