Inside the Marble of the Parthenon

The marble of the Parthenon itself is not pure white stone, but a lovely marble with tracings of silvery mica and gold pyrite. This excellent stone was chosen, I believe, simply because it was beautiful. There were plenty of marble quarries to chose from, but the ancients celebrated this stone, and while you can visit its quarry today, sadly the supply of this marble have been exhausted.
I also suspect, that this marble contributed the inspiration for all the cheap plastic tiles in low-cost hotels scattered over the world.