Roughed-out blocks in a quarry at Carrara.
The quarries at Carrara, near ancient Luna, are among the largest in the world and an important hub of the international marble trade. Large-scale quarrying in this region started under Julius Caesar and continued through the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. For much of this period Luna marble was the most commonly imported white marble at Rome. Later quarrying has destroyed many of the remains of ancient quarrying at Carrara. Several varieties of white marble are quarried at Carrara as well as a streaked grey variety called Bardiglio.
