A white, tan or cream-colored limestone quarried in the Tiber Valley near Rome. Beginning in ancient times it was used for revetment, for sculpture, for pavements, and as a building material (for example, in the external walls of the Colosseum in Rome). Other structures built with travertine include Bernini’s colonnade in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican and Richard Meier’s Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Travertine quarry in Tivoli, Italy.