IntroductionTravertines are widely used across the globe in building materials since they are found abundantly and have distinct decorative characteristics. They have had a broad range of use in architectural applications throughout history, including in government buildings, healthcare facilities, hotels, and restaurants. The Magna Graecia region (e.g., the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Segesta, Italy), Anatolia (e.g., Hierapolis, Turkey), and Rome are notable locations where remains of ancient travertinebuilt buildings can be found (Pedley, 2009). The architects of the Roman Empire used travertine in a number of celebrated buildings throughout its territory, especially in the city of Rome, such as the Temple of Concord, the Coliseum, the Ponte Sant' Angelo, and the Castel Sant' Angelo (Jackson et al., 2005;Pentecost, 2005). Local red travertine was used to build Spain's Roman Theater of Carthago Nova (Soler Huertas, 2005), while Hungary's aqueducts and amphitheaters in Budapest (Török, 2006a(Török, , 2006b are also some historic travertine-made buildings. The 17th century colonnades in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, the 18th century Trevi Fountain in Rome, the 19th century Parliament Building in Budapest, and the 20th century monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome are some more recent examples of the architectural use of travertine in buildings. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Roman travertine was exported to the United States and used in the J. Paul Getty Museum Building in Los Angeles and the Lincoln Center in New York (Sidraba et al., 2004). Today, Turkey is one of the major suppliers of travertine to the United States and other countries.Travertines are hot-spring-sourced carbonate deposits characterized by high porosity, different colors, and a fine-grained banded structure. They are generally found in fault zones, in karstic caves, and around spring cones, being deposited by oozing or spring waters containing Ca 2+ and CO 3 2- (Pentecost, 2005). The use of travertine is closely related to its chemical, morphological, and industrial characteristics (Ayaz, 2002). The morphological characteristics are crucial for touristic purposes while the chemical and mechanical characteristics are important for industrial use (Wilson, 1979;Chafetz and Folk, 1984). Industrially, travertines can be used as building materials, especially for cladding and flooring purposes, as Abstract: Travertine rocks are currently used in various architectural applications, cut perpendicular or parallel to bedding planes. Travertine stones used without enough attention paid to the cutting directions easily wear off in locations where pedestrian traffic is heavy and can cause some unexpected complications in practice. This study was conducted to elucidate the effects of cutting directions on the abrasion resistance of travertine stones. Travertine blocks were cut perpendicular and parallel to bedding planes, and their abrasion resistances were determined by means of the Böhme abrasion loss test. Travertine blocks were chosen from 6 ...