Features of unusual national work: brick quarry in Burkina Faso

Any builder knows that bricks are actually burnt clay. But on this quarry in Burkina Faso, bricks are made in a completely different way. This process is very interesting, because the building material here is simply cut from the slope.

Not from anyone, of course, but only from laterite. Laterite is a surface formation of red color, richly saturated with iron and aluminum.

Similar careers can also be found in other countries - India, for example. But how does the production process itself go?

Everything is simple. When the laterite is wet, it becomes soft and is easily cut with a shovel or pickaxe.

But when the moisture from the laterite material disappears, the cut bricks become very hard.

The laterite was first discovered in India by the Scottish geographer Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. That was in 1807. He also called the breed laterite, from the Latin word later, translated as "brick".

A quarry in Burkina Faso has been operating for about 30 years. All these years, workers using only picks and shovels cut bricks from the red breed and sell them to local builders.

Of course, the resources of a career are not endless, and someday this place will have to be closed, but so far people have work.

From day to day, they outline places for cuts, after which they carve out bricks from the rock.

All these pictures belong to the American photographer David Pace.

Having visited this interesting place, the American described it as magical, because of the unusually beautiful red color and, most importantly, the incredible people working here.

Watch the video: World's MOST Unusual Buildings (May 2024).