The present study investigates for the first time the historical bricks of The Red Monastery
(west Sohag, Egypt), built about fifth century AD, which showing several aspects of brick
decay. Several techniques were employed (geochemical, petrographical, mineralogical and
morphological) to determine their deterioration features and provenance of the raw material
as well as shed lights on the firing techniques. In addition, integration of geochemical data
with multivariate statistics (i.e. Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analyses and Linear
Discriminant Analyses) were used to provide insights into the nature and provenance of the
raw material. Potential geological raw materials for bricks manufacturing, were taken from
modern floodplain (Nile alluvium) and calcareous clay deposits from lowland desert near the
monument site, and subjected to chemical analyses, to compare them with the chemical
composition of the studied bricks. Results show that the starting raw materials for bricks were
probably obtained by mixing Nile alluvium (quarried from the Nile River floodplain deposits)
with the possible introduction of a calcium carbonate-rich flux component as a temper. This
will provide guidelines for future conservation strategy for making new compatible and durable
bricks and/or materials to be utilized for restoration, and contributes to the preservation of the
historical masonry under study.