The delicate carving of the fingers and the book, made possible by the special properties of alabaster, underscores Mary’s attentiveness and piety. Along with bodily imagery, drapery is a big ...

Alabaster, found in hues ranging from pristine ... We reinterpret it with our own creativity." For decades, stone carving has been a vital income source for hundreds of families in Luxor ...

The stone carvings are said to be some of the best ... were an attempt to erase and recycle the precious alabaster material by a later monarch—possibly Sinsharishkun, the last king of Nineveh.