the material used for the mileposts in saxony varies widely. they were usually made from the prevailing building stone of the local area, which is also reflected in the building materials used in saxony's architecture in general. elbe sandstone from several quarries in saxon switzerland and the area of the tharandt forest was used for most of the stones. other frequently used materials were rochlitz porphyry in central saxony and lusatian granite in eastern saxony. in the chemnitz area, hilbersdorf porphyritic tuff quarried at hilbersdorf and flöha was used as a milepost material in the upper ore mountains and the vogtland mileposts were made of local granite, for example, wiesenbad granite, granite of the greifensteine area, schwarzenberg granite, kirchberg granite or bad brambach granite of the "fichtelgebirge type". the different weathering properties of these diverse types of stone proves to be a challenge for the conservation of these monuments in many cases. this is also the reason why numerous mileposts no longer exist.