The Red Marble at White House is Originally from Elazig, Turkey!!!

Yes, you heard it right. In 1984, Italians imported the red marble from Elazig which is also the first year it has been started extracting this unique marble for the first time. This is how it got its popularity.Besides The White House, you can also see this unique red-vein marble at The Capitol Building again in D.C., The Holy grounds for Muslims in Mecca, Burj Al Arab (the 7-star hotel in Dubai), Victoria's Secret Stores and many other well known destinations and hotels. So, why those people are using this red marble?

Well, first of all it is unique and looks prestigious. It is so unique that you can almost claim it is fake and too good to be true. And secondly, the cost is under-priced (easily one third of its actual value) since the cost of labor is cheap in East Turkey. But this doesn't change the fact that, the only red marble source in the world is from this small, rarely-heard eastern city of Turkey, Elazig. Red marble is also called "purplebrown", "cherry-colored" or "Vişne Çürüğü Mermeri" in local language. However, it is commonly known as Elazığ Cherry, Rosso Levanto or Rosso Lepanto.

This unique marble is sleeping under the mountains of Elazig. It in fact requires a very dangerous and difficult process to reach and extract those marble blocks after carefully digging. The reason I said dangerous is because of the cheap and unsecured labor is involved in this process, and countless of people get injured every year because of stucking under this heavy blocks of stones. Sad but true!

People usually prefer using this red marble with the mix of white texture as we can see at Victoria's Secret's diagonal white & red flooring or at many other examples below since the marble itself has these white veins inside. If you are passionate enough to decorate your house with these amazing marbles, you should be able to import these marbles easily. You should also check your local flooring stores like Floor & Decor (for USA), or similar. If you are lucky, you can find this red marble there for a reasonable price. Otherwise, find a Turkish friend who can help you with the connection. Those marble manufacturers are poor in marketing, and reaching end users but I am sure shipping a block of marble shouldn't cost you more than couple thousand dollars ;) In the end, it is all about showing off how elegant your house is in compare to The White House or 7-star hotels; and who cares if it costs a small fortune!!!

Source:
http://www.fka.org.tr/ContentDownload/mermer_raporu.pdf
http://www.haberler.com/elazig-in-visne-curugu-mermeri-dunya-yapilarini-3017181-haberi/
http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94365