Carrara Marble Mountains Italy

Mining of white marble in the mountains.

Carrara marble mountains italy.

Carrara has always been considered the city of marble and for good reason the identity of this centuries old city with strong ties to both the mountains and the nearby ligurian sea has always had marble at its heart. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. The luxury stone comes the apuan alps a mountain range in northern tuscany that stretches for. Carrara k ə ˈ r ɑːr ə kə rar ə italian.

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals most commonly calcite or dolomite marble is typically not foliated although there are exceptions in geology the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone. Alpi apuane are a mountain range in northern tuscany italy they are included between the valleys of the serchio and magra rivers and to the northwest the garfagnana and lunigiana with a total length of approximately 55 kilometres 34 mi. The pristine stone has been extracted from area quarries since roman times when you hear or utter carrara marble and quarries are the immediate associations. It is on the carrione river some 100 kilometres 62 mi west northwest of florence its motto is fortitudo mea in rota latin.

My strength is in the wheel. Touring the marble mines in the apuan alps in northern tuscany is an incredible visual experience which is why the location was chosen for the chase scene in the james bond film quantum of solace. The apuan alps italian. Italian carrara white marble is a famous building and excavator with demolition hammer in a carrara marble quarry.

Carara is a city and comune in tuscany in central italy of the province of massa and carrara and notable for the white or blue grey marble quarried there. Today italy s marble tends to move farther than it did before not just 200 miles to rome or 700 miles to london but 3 000 miles to abu dhabi and 4 000 miles to mumbai and 5 000 miles to beijing. The name derives from the apuani ligures tribe who lived here in ancient times. In carrara there are several marble caves on top of each other and they have to leave columns and follow a specific layout to prevent the mountain from collapse.

The marble quarries in carrara employ 5 000 people who quarry 25 000 tons of marble on a monthly basis she stated in a monotonous voice that made it hard to listen. You can tour some of the marble mines above carrara in a self guided car tour but to get as high into the apuan alps as we did in the picture you ll need to take a jeep tour.