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Ancient Egypt in Sinai

The establishment of the Egyptian empire by pharaohs of the First Dynasty who came from Upper Egypt about 3000 BC had a serious impact on the Timna civilization. During the unification of the empire, the new rulers from Upper Egypt not only conquered Lower Egypt in several campaigns but also repeatedly celebrated victories over Asians in their pictorial records. In all probability these Asians were Timna people. An important confirmation of this is a commemorative inscription of Snofru found on a rock face next to the turquoise mines of Maghara. Snofru was one of the most important rulers of the Fourth Dynasty and is regarded as the conqueror of Sinai. The Egyptologist Flinders Petrie had these and other similar inscriptions chiseled out of Sinai's rocks and transported by camel and ship to Cairo in order to save them from destruction. Today most of them are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Although the Egyptian occupation of Sinai did not last long, the Timna people remained under the pharaohs' hegemony, and their culture gradually died out. Egyptian influence in Sinai covers (including interruptions) the period from 2900 to 526 BC. During this whole period the peninsula was important to the Egyptians mainly because the important trade and military road to Palestine ran along the Mediterranean coast. Called the Way of Horus, it was used by the Egyptian military for their campaigns of conquest. In the opposite direction, Asians such as the Amoritic shepherd warriors or the Hyksos penetrated into Egypt in several waves of immigration, causing first the Old and then later the Middle kingdoms to collapse.
The turquoise and copper mines of Timna were located in southern Sinai. The pharaohs sent mining expeditions here whenever necessary and had first the Tirana people work for them and later their local successors, under Egyptian leadership and for Egyptian benefit. Nevertheless, there are some signs that indicate that there must have been some kind of contract between the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Sinai, who did not work as slaves. The remains of this extensive mining activity can still be seen. Besides rock pictures, inscriptions and steles of Pharaohs, there are mine entrances, slag heaps, remains of kilns, foundation walls of primitive houses, fortified work camps, mouthpieces of burning-nozzles, and smelting clinker.
The ruins of the temple of Serabit al-Khadim from the Twelfth Dynasty he in a wonderful location with a view of the Tih Fault. Flinders Petrie carried out the first scientific investigations here. The temple was consecrated to die Egyptian goddess Hathor and to the local god Sopdu, ruler of the east. This shows that Egyptian and local miners prayed and made their sacrifices in the same temple. Not far away are the copper mines of Bir Nasib with their large slag heaps and inscriptions of Amenemhat III, and mines in Wadi Kharig with inscriptions of Sahure and a stele of Sesostris I. Other important copper mines are located in Wadi Baba. Wadi Shellal, Wadi Riqeita, and north of Eilat. The last great copper pharaoh was Ramses III (ca. 1200-1168 BC), who was also one of the most powerful pharaohs of the New Kingdom. Afterward, Egyptian influence in Sinai diminished without interruption until 526 BC, when the Persian conquest of the pharaohs' empire extinguished it completely.
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