Khirbet en-Nahas, also spelled Khirbat en-Nahas, is one of the largest copper mining and smelting sites of the ancient world, built around 3,000 years ago.
It is located in
Wadi Faynan, between the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...
and the
Gulf of Aqaba
The Gulf of Aqaba () or Gulf of Eilat () is a large gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian Peninsula. Its coastline is divided among four countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
...
, now in
Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
. There is evidence of sophisticated economic and political activity in the valley about 3,000 years ago and archaeologists think it may be the site of an early organized state.
[
Archaeologist Thomas E. Levy of the ]University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
, heads a dig at Khirbat en-Nahas that has uncovered an ancient copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
mining operation on a scale that he says can have been organized by only "an ancient state or kingdom."
Robert Draper, Kings of Controversy, National Geographic, December 2010.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Photos of Khirbat en-Nahas
at the American Center of Research
The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past an ...
Archaeological sites in Jordan
Prehistoric mines
Copper mines in Jordan
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