Abstract
The conservation of Historic Monuments is a means of continuity of history as it keeps alive the
cultural scene of that historic period to which it belongs. Pakistan is rich in a variety of built
heritage and a large proportion of the valuable Heritage is the monuments built with stone.
All components of materials, used in the construction of historic buildings, can be categorized as
being either organic or inorganic in nature/origin. Organic materials are derived from living
things such as wood whereas inorganic materials are obtained from non-living substances such as
stone and metal.
The Earth’s crust is composed of minerals associated together to form rock. Certain of these
minerals have attracted the artists / craftsmen from the earliest times, to use them in buildings and
sculpture, because of their special qualities for fine work, e.g. hardness, texture, color and
durability. Egyptians were the earliest people who used stone in large quantities in construction of
monumental building. The Pyramids of Egypt are estimated to contain more than two million
blocks of limestone, each weighing approximately 2.5 tones. Other important examples of the use
of stone are Greek and Roman structures, Buddhist buildings etc. The massive and beautiful
buildings built by the Mughals in India and Pakistan are examples from not too remote a past.
Stone was considered to be so important that at one time all the quarries were in royal ownership.
This paper is basically focused on theoretical research regarding scientific knowledge of stone
and its use in the buildings, which is essential to be understood, as all the conservation work rests
upon it. The information given in this paper has been collected from already published literature
on stone and duly referred. This scattered information has been put together for ready reference
for the conservationists. Thus the paper provides, in an analytical way, all necessary information
on Stone which was found in various pieces of literature. The paper also briefly discusses the
Stone heritage of Pakistan and properties included in the list of World Heritage. It is found that
83% of these properties were built with stone. The paper further describes the State of
conservation of built heritage in the country. It has been found that a significant part, more than
60%, of the built heritage belongs to stone. Thus the paper gives all the required basic
information to the Stone conservationist.
M. Y. Awan. (2008) Building Stone and State of Conservation of the Built Heritage of Pakistan, Pakistan Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Volume 3, Issue 1.
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