of the twentieth dynasty, which, according to Erman, lasted from 1180-1050 B.C. The western Sinai copper and turquoise mining region is separated from the Suez Gulf by a narrow plain and one range of hills. Pharaoh's men called it the country of grottoes, in allusion to the many pits and tunnels made by the Bedouin miners who preceded them. It is known that in very early times copper ore of some kind was mined not far from the gold mines of the southern desert region, but the workings indicate that no great amount of metal was produced from this locality.
The country rock of the west side of the peninsula is a soft, friable, yellow sandstone, probably cut by porphyry dikes,[1] and the method of laying out the mines was not unlike that used in coal mining at the present time. Tunnels or entries were driven and rooms were worked out on each side, leaving pillars of rock to support the roof.
On a peak at the junction of the Wadi Genneh and the Wadi Maghara, the traveler finds a low wall enclosing a group of over 200 stone huts—some round and some rectangular—in which the miners of many generations lived. With the exception of the houses of the overseers, which have two rooms, the dwellings consist of a single room, on one side of which a stone bunk or bench may have served for table and bed. The walls of the houses are made of the sandstone from the mines, and are laid up without mortar. The door is a very narrow opening in one of the walls. The roofs were made of wicker work covered with clay. The village was garrisoned to protect the miners from the native tribes, and a temple was erected for the worship of 'Hathor, the lady of the malachite country.' Below the village, an artificial lake or reservoir was formed by damming the valley, and the shellfish of the lake were used as food, along with dates, oil, milk and a coarse bread, with occasionally a fowl or some other meat. Occasionally the king sent a supply train into the camp, and an inscription says that one of these consisted of: corn, 16 oxen, 30 geese, fresh vegetables, live poultry and other things.
The tools found in the village were all of flint, and included knives, scrapers, hammers, saws, arrow heads and spear points. Stone tools with wooden handles were found in the mines, but it is probable that these were used in making the inscriptions which cover the walls, and that the mining was done with bronze tools. The mine laborers were principally criminals and prisoners of war, but an inscription records the fact that one of the kings sent out an army officer and 734 soldiers to work the mines. There seems to have been but little interruption in the operation of the mines from the latter part of the third dynasty until the end of the sixth (from about 2830 to possibly 2400 B.C.). From this time until the twelfth dynasty (2130 B.C.) but little work was done, but in this dynasty Egypt was on the crest of one of
- ↑ See Dana, under 'Turquoise.'
