By Abubakr Moussa
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the role played by the marine environment conditions in the deterioration phenomena of building materials at the heritage houses in Farasan Islands, for this purpose bedrock and building mate-rials from three ancient houses at two different islands in the red sea were studied comparatively; using XRD, SEM-EDS, Raman spectroscopy and XRF in order to identify their composition, and were investigated petrographically to determine the real response of the masonry structure to the deformation imposed at the surrounding conditions. Bedrock is mainly coral reef limestone and sandy limestone with high deposits of iron compounds and clay minerals, while building stone varies between coral reef limestone, dolomitic lime-stone and pure calcareous limestone, mortars and plasters also varies between lime and gypsum mortars. Foraminiferal shells are common in the studied stone samples. These building materials are widely affected by the surrounding marine climatic conditions including wind erosion and salt weathering.
