Sarabit al Khadem - Sinai High Mountain Range
Sarabit el Khadem is located in the High Mountain Range in Sinai. A jeep tour to Sarabit can be arranged for from Cairo or from any place in Sinai. There are plans underway to build hotels in this remote area. Until now there is the option to camp out in a close by Bedouin settlement or under the million stars.
About 3500 BCE Sarabit al Khadem (the Heights of the Servants) which was long before known for its rich copper and turquoise veins, developed into a center for turquoise and copper mining and flourished for thousands of years. Tribal people stayed in labor camps which were set up near the site of the mines. Copper and turquoise were brought down an ancient track to the port of Markha near Abu Zneima. Here the minerals were loaded onto ships and bound for Egypt . One of the reliefs found at Sarabit depicts the Nile boats that carried the minerals to mainland Egypt.
In the 12th Dynasty, a temple dedicated to the Goddess Hathor, the Lady of Turquoise, Love and Joy, and associated with Isis , was built on top of the plateau. It is the only temple found outside mainland Egypt .
At some point during this period an extraordinary event took place. Semitic laborers scribbled symbols on the walls translating the pictures of the hieroglyphic alphabet into 27 consonantal sounds. These scripts discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1905 are known as the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet and were long supposed to be an early forerunner of the actual alphabet.
Naturally Sarabit al Khadem cannot be compared with the famous Pharaonic sites all over Egypt. Its flair lies in the beautiful surroundings of the high mountains and its isolated location, a touch of adventure and its solitude.
published August 31, 2007
Source: Angela
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