Dendera questions re the blue stone

[FABlux]

I'm glad Horus posted a Dendera photo competition, it reminded me that I have questions.



Why is there a large blue stone by the entrance?
How long has it been there (or rather they as there is one each side) It seems incongruous that they have used blue stone. Anybody know anything?

[Horus]

I was fascinated by your observation Fabby and scuttled off for a quick look through my photos of Dendera. Amazing what you don't see sometimes, yes you are correct, those two stones do appear to be blue.

I tried cropping one of my own pictures and saturating the colour to make it stand out more but unfortunately when uploaded it loses its clarity due to the small file size. What it does bring out is the same colour blue on parts of the Hathor head above the carved stones and I am of the opinion that they are painted rather than actually being 'blue stones'.

As to why only those two have kept that colour is a mystery, maybe they were the only two that were painted that particular colour and something in the minerals used in the paint pigment has survived better. As you know Dendera has a vast amount of blue colouration still visible on the inside and in it's time it must have looked amazing.

They are doing a lot of restoration work and some of the blues are beautiful to see although some now look a little 'washed out' and I wonder if maybe they have cleaned it a bit too much?

[sesen]

I've never noticed that before - great spotting

[FABlux]

The whole of the blocks are blue, it doesn't look as though it has been painted, but more like a blue stone (or is it concrete)
I was intrigued because it is actually quite incongruous, I noticed it 2 visists ago but forgot to take a photo on the way out