In the present study, abrasion resistance and compressive strength of concrete specimens containing SiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles which are cured in different curing media have been investigated. Portland cement was partially replaced by up to 2.0 wt.% SiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles and mechanical properties of the produced specimens were measured. Increasing the nanoparticles content have found to increase the abrasion resistance of the specimens which were cured in water and saturated limewater, while this condition was not observed for compressive strength in both curing media. The enhancement of abrasion resistance was more for the specimens containing SiO2 nanoparticles in both curing media. Since, abrasion resistance and compressive strength of the specimens follow a similar regime by increasing the nanoparticles content when they are cured in saturated limewater, some experimental relationships has been presented to correlate these two properties of concrete for this curing medium. On the whole, it has been concluded that the abrasion resistance of concrete does not only depend on the corresponding compressive strength. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.