Ravaccione Marble Quarry, Carrara, early 20th Century. Carrara has been linked with the process of quarrying and carving marble since the Roman Age. The Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome are constructed of it. Many sculptures of the Renaissance were carved from Carrara marble. In addition to the marble quarries, the city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuaries and antiquities, and a yearly marble technology fair. The local marble is exported around the world, and marble from elsewhere is also fashioned and sculpted commercially here. A quarry is a type of open pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Many quarry stones such as marble, granite, limestone, and sandstone are cut into larger slabs and removed from the quarry. The surfaces are polished and finished with varying degrees of sheen or luster. Polished slabs are often cut into tiles or countertops and installed in all kinds of residential and commercial properties. Natural stone quarried from the earth is often considered a luxury and tends to be a highly durable surface, thus a highly desirable commodity.