>>73 That depends on what stone is available in your part of the world and what amount of effort you are willing to give it to get the end result.
You should have sandstone or some variant of it everywhere, and every sculptor had learned on it. After that you can go to harder rocks like marble or granite, which require actually expensive tools and months and years to get shit done with. There's a merit to the effort, though. Compared to sandstone, though, which lasts a few hundred years even after the roof and barely keeps shape after 200 years if you leave it on the rain, noble rocks can last thousands if they are cared for, as evidenced by the ones surviving to this day.
The reason would be that noble rocks can be smoothed. If you smooth a stone, it's surface is closed, and much more resistant. It becomes harder for elements to get in. It's like the sculpture gets a skin.
Trachyte is a relatively rare stone. I love it because it presents the midway point - a relatively soft stone that's musky and can be smoothed.
It also makes sparks when you cut it and that's metal.