The Mamluks cemetery, City of the Dead, is one of the famous historical Islamic
places that contain many outstanding structures. Limestone, which is the main
building material used in the Mamluks cemetery buildings, always underwent
weathering processes and deterioration factors. The present study is an analytical
and petrographic assessment of limestone used in historical buildings in
Cairo-Egypt. It is organized into three main sections. The first section provides
a histo-rical background of Mamluks cemetery. The second one sets out to
evaluate the current situation of the decaying limestone. The third section
explains the alteration mechanisms between deterioration forms and surrounding
environmental factors. Visual, microscopic, and laboratory analysis by means
of PM, XRD, and EDX highlighted the causes of limestone decaying. The
decay phen-omena of limestone in the (City of the Dead) are independent of
the exposure of the architectural surface and are strongly influenced by the
sedimentary nature (micro laminations), which acts with the formation and
distribution of salts as preferential planes for the formation of aggressive
weath-ering forms. Another issue is related to the formation of cavities.
Furthermore, small quartz grains occasionally occupy some shell cavities
(chambers).