Geology

The stone in its natural state.

The highlands of the West Bank are primarily underlain by sedimentary limestone, dolomite and dolomitic limestone. The stone quarried for building purposes, ranging in color from white to pink, yellow and tawny, is known collectively as Jerusalem stone.

• Soft Senonian limestone is found to the east of Jerusalem, and has long been used as an inexpensive building material.
• Stone of the Cenomanian layers, known in Arabic as mizzi ahmar and mizzi yahudz, is far more durable than Senonian limestone, but is very hard and was expensive to quarry using pre-modern methods.

Jerusalem Stone Menorah - Made in Israel -->

• Turonian layers yield mizze helu and meleke, the most prized building stones. The thin layered mizze helu is easily quarried and worked. Meleke is soft and easy to chisel, yet hardens with exposure to the atmosphere and becomes highly durable. It was used for the great public buildings of antiquity, and for the construction of the Islamic period city walls and buildings.
  
  The remains of ancient quarries can be seen near Yemin Moshe, in the Sanhedria neighborhood, and elsewhere.