Wadi Hammamat
At the start of his reign, the pharaoh initiated a substantial building program on the scale of Ramesses II by doubling the size of the work gangs at Deir el-Medina to a total of 120 men and dispatching numerous expeditions to the stone quarries of Wadi Hammamat and the turquoise mines of the Sinai. The Great Rock stela of Ramesses IV at Wadi Hammamat records that the largest expedition—dated to his Year 3, third month of Shemu day 27—consisted of 8,368 men alone including 5,000 soldiers, 2,000 personnel of the Amun temples, 800 Apiru and 130 stonemasons and quarrymen under the personal command of the High Priest of Amun, Ramessesnakht. The scribes who composed the text also noted that this figure included 900 men "who are dead and omitted from this list." Consequently, once this omitted figure is included to the tally of 8,368 men who served in the Year 3 quarry expedition, a total of 900 men out of an original expedition of 8,368 men perished during this endeavour for a mortality rate of 10.7%. Some of the stones which were dragged 60 miles to the Nile from Wadi Hammamat weighed 40 tons or more. Other Egyptian quarries including Aswan were located much closer to the Nile which enabled them to use barges to transport stones long distances.