During the 18th Dynasty the Egyptians switched from limestone to sandstone. At this time the quarries at Gebelein were not yielding as much limestone as before. Gebel el-Silsila became a source of sandstone. The use of this stone allowed for the use of larger architraves.

Many of the talatats used by Akhenaten were quarried from here and used in buildings at Luxor and Amarna. The site provided numerous stone quarries on both the west and east sides of the Nile. The site contains many shrines erected by officials who would have been in charge of quarrying the stone. Almost all of Ancient Egypt’s great temples derived their sandstone from here, such as Karnak, Luxor, Ramesses III’s Medinet Habu, Kom Ombo, and the Ramesseum. [X]