The Timna Valley in southern Israel was, for hundreds of years, a copper mining area run by the Egyptians from the 14th to the 12 Centuries BCE, i.e. the reigns of Seti I to Ramses V. Not far from the tip of the Red Sea, the Egyptians would ship the copper through modern day Eilat and back to Egypt.
Today Timna Park has excavation sites of the old mines, in addition to the dramatic landscape of the southern Negev desert and sandstone formations similar to those found in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.
We climbed down into old mine shafts, up arches, and visited the ancient temple site of the Goddess Hathor, to whom the miners prayed. When you pick up a handful of dirt, you find bluish-green bits of copper still there. Given the astronomical spike in the price of copper over the last decade, it turns out the Israeli government is contracting with an international firm to reopen part of the mine for present day use. From Timna, our trip continued further east and north into the central Negev desert.
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