Black-and-white speckled stone, mined by the Egyptians in Aswan, and used to make statues (particularly in the New Kingdom) and also vessels (Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods). In Egyptological literature diorite is often referred to as granite, while the term diorite is used for anorthosite, a greeny-grey stone mined in the western desert to the south west of Abu Simbel. This stone was used as early as the Predynastic Period to make vessels and tools, and occasionally from the Old Kingdom for statues.