A hard stone containing a number of minerals, primarily quartz, feldspar and mica. Granite is mainly found in Aswan and environs, but also elsewhere in the eastern desert and in Sinai. Red granite is the most common, but there are also black and grey types. Granite was used as a building material since Predynastic times, and also to make bowls and vases. In the Old Kingdom, for example, it was used for some of the inner parts of the pyramids of Giza, the pyramid temples of Khafre and Menkaure, and the valley temple of Khafre. From that time on, statues, sarcophagi and other objects were also made of granite.