Timna Park
Timna is a huge park, 60 square kilometers in total, located in the Timna Valley, about 30 kilometers north of Eilat. A host of activities can be done here. This can seem bit overwhelming. If you come with a tour, your itinerary is already decided upon. Otherwise, it is a good idea to decide in advance the types of activities that interest you and your family and to work from there, although with a degree of flexibility.
These are some of the activities available:
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View the magnificence of the desert scenery by car and stop at the three main sites — namely Solomon’s Pillars, the Mushroom and the Arches. Each will be described in its own section. Knowledge of a small amount of geology is helpful.
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Take short hikes associated with each of these three sites. The trails are not difficult, but neither are they easy. Appropriate footwear and even hiking sticks can be helpful. These hikes will be described in the appropriate section.
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A major aspect of this park was the production of copper. This sounds quite esoteric. However, the production of copper was a very significant stage in human history. This fascinating topic is described in an essay. For starters, view the exhibits in the Visitor Center.
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Keeping the kids entertained. The park can do this too. Activities include boating on the small lake Timna Lake in the park, doing an organized sand activity by Timna Lake, and eating in the Timna Café by the lake. In other words, head to the lake.
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Take some long hikes. There are a number of long hikes in the park, and these are nicely described on the following website: Remember that it is extremely hot here in the summer and hiking and biking should be avoided from May to October.
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Rent a mountain hike in the park and visit the various sites on a 6-km family, circular route. The path has paved and dirt sections.
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Examine the religious aspects of the park. A pagan temple can be viewed by Solomon’s Pillars and this is described in the relevant section. There is also a life-size model of the Jewish Sanctuary by the lake. This is in the park, but not part of it, and there is an entrance fee.
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Directions: Enter “Timna” into Waze and click on “פארק תמנע.“
Admission:: The park is open on Sunday to Friday from 8.99 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. and on Saturday from 8.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. You can stay in the park until sunset. Park entry tickets are valid for seven consecutive days and include a complimentary bottle for filling with colorful sand. Some distance from the Visitor Center is a café, a lake with boats that can be rented, shaded picnic tables, water, and restrooms. Their phone number is 08 631-6756. This is their website
Public transport: Enter “Timna Park into Moovit. The closest bus stop is a 3-km/37-minute walk.
Solomon's Pillars
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You will first enter the Visitor Center to purchase your entry ticket. This has exhibits of the types of rock found here, namely limestone, sandstone and granite, and rocks containing deposits of copper. Note the exhibit with a copper snake.
The history of copper production and why it is so important
Copper was the first metal that humans learned to smelt and shape. This discovery was a major technological leap beyond flint tools and stoneware vessels. So much so, that an entire period is named after its use called the Chalcolithic (“Copper Age”). This was from approximately 4,500 BCE. Copper was used initially for jewelry, vessels and cultic objects. It was during this time that agriculture developed.
While in the desert, the Children of Israel had access to copper, and they used it for making the altar in the Sanctuary and for making a copper snake. They may have brought chunks of copper with them from Egypt. More likely, they bought it on the way, possibly even from Timna.
Pure copper is relatively soft, but when alloyed with tin (or arsenic) it produces bronze, which is harder, more durable, and ideal for making weapons such as swords, spearheads and armor, and tools and agricultural implements. This began in about 3,300 BCE, which is the beginning of the Bronze Age.
These implements changed how society functioned. They made agriculture more efficient. Societies became more specialized, including skills in metallurgy. They also made life more dangerous, and this is when urbanization occurred within city walls for protection. Societies that controlled copper and tin were able to gain military and economic dominance, which is why the Bronze Age coincides with the rise of early states and empires.
Timna has been a site of copper mining and smelting since the Chalcolithic period. Initially, copper was mined from the surface and it was only during the last centuries of this period that copper ore was extracted beneath the surface with the use of mines. How is it possible to identify which mines were used when? We can look at the stone tools they left behind. There is an exhibit of such implements in the Visitor Center.
The demand for bronze drove the Egyptians to perfect the mining industry and this reached its peak during the 14th to 12th centuries BCE, from the Pharaoh’s Seti I through to Ramses V. It was the Egyptians who constructed vertical shafts and horizontal tunnels and established mining camps and shrines for their workers, most of whom were desert people from Midian or Edom. In other words, this was always a cosmopolitan type of place.
King Solomon may have engaged in mining activity in the 10th to 9th century BCE as well as later Judean kings, as he ruled to Etzion-Geber (current-day Eilat). However, there is no archeological evidence of Israelite activity here, and it is more likely that mining activity was controlled by the Edomites, to which Solomon would have had access. Copper mining was pursued in the Roman period during the 1st to 2nd centuries CE and continued during the early Arab period.
The geology of Timna Valley
Timna Valley is in the shape of a horse shoe surrounded by steep cliffs but is open to the east. In its center is Mount Timna, the world’s first-ever copper mine.
The geology of this area is basically the same as that described for Yoash Lookout in the Eilat Mountains in that Timna lies in the southern Aravah Rift Valley, which is a zone of long-term tectonic weakness that repeatedly uplifted, fractured, and brought old rocks to the surface. The foundation of Timna is Precambrian crystalline rock, such as granite and associated metamorphic rocks. These formed deep in the Earth’s crust over 550 million years ago and were uplifted and exposed. Their hardness is why Timna’s mountains stand out so sharply. Cutting through the granite are numerous igneous dykes in which volcanic magna penetrated through fractures in the rock. Because dykes are often harder than the surrounding rock, erosion leaves them standing as dark ribs or ridges across the landscape.
Above and against the granite is sedimentary sandstone. This was originally formed from sand that eroded off the granite and was deposited in shallow seas, river systems, and coastal environments and later hardened into sandstone. Iron oxides within the rock stain it red, purple, yellow, and brown, and give Timna Park its famous colors.
Timna’s iconic shapes are caused by differential erosion, with softer sandstone eroding faster, and leaving harder or cemented zones. This created Solomon’s Pillars, which are vertical sandstone cliffs left behind as surrounding rock eroded, and natural arches and windowed cliffs. Mushroom-shaped rocks were formed by wind abrasion near ground level.
Copper occurs where hot fluids moved through fractures in sandstone and granite and copper minerals precipitated in veins and pockets.
Copper deposit in rock as shown in the Visitor Cehter
Note the copper snake as found in the temple by Solomon's Pillars in the Visitor Center
Solomon’s columns
Solomon’s columns have nothing to do with King Solomon, but are massive natural sandstone columns formed by erosion.
At the base of the columns is the outline of a temple, thought to be a 13th or 14th BCE Egyptian temple dedicated to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of mining. Egypt later withdrew from Timna in around the late 12th century BCE. Nevertheless, copper production continued and the cultic space was reused and modified, probably by Edomites.
The temple contains a basin in the rear, standing stones behind the stone basin, and an offering table in the center. Findings here have included the bones of sacrificed animals, fruit remains, clay and stone vessels, and interestingly a 12-inch copper serpent. The original is in the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv and a replica is displayed in the Visitor Center. It is of interest because a bronze serpent (Nehushtan) is mentioned in the Bible as being used by Moses. (Numbers 21:4–9).
High above the temple is a rock engraving dated to the time of Ramses III from the 12th century BCE in which the king is making an offering to the goddess Hathor. On the bottom are hieroglyphics that reads something like: “This mining expedition operates under royal authority, is protected by the goddess Hathor—mistress of minerals and the desert—and seeks divine blessing for the officials and workers involved.”
It is possible to climb to the top of the columns for the view and this is recommended. The path starts behind the pillars by the Temple. The walk is minimally difficult but there are railings for support. The return is to the other side of the pillars.
The Egyptian and then Edomite temple
Climbing to the top of Somomon's Pillars
The Mushroom
The Mushroom is a sandstone formation created by erosion. There are others like it in the vicinity. Close to the mushroom you will see the ruins of a center for copper production with workshops and storage rooms for raw materials that has been dated to the 12 to 13th century BCE.
There is also a copper smelting furnace. Charcoal was burnt with crushed copper ore and air was pumped into the furnace through clay pipes to raise the temperature. This produced molten copper and left behind black slag. The numerous slag heaps near the Mushroom show that production was on an industrial scale. This is one reason Timna is considered a major metallurgical center and not just a small workshop.
The Mushroom
Workshops for copper production
The Arches
The Arches are natural rock openings formed by wind and erosion over millions of years in the soft red sandstone, and they offer dramatic views over the valley, the distant ridges and Mount Timna. This area was an active mining area and there are ancient mining shafts and workings dating back around 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. Some are fenced off for safety, while others can be seen through grates or openings. One path takes you inside a mining tunnel with steps and ladders providing access.
There are looped trails that take you to the Smaller Arch, and if you continue to the Great Arch. Short sections of the route have metal rungs and ladders bolted into the rock and there are narrow passages through sandstone clefts. To the Small Arch, follow the marked trail up a sandstone slope and you will soon reach the Small Arch. To the mining tunnels, continue along the loop into a narrow cleft. You will pass an ancient copper mining tunnel with visible tool marks. From the mining area you can walk to the Great Arch. Follow the loop downhill on a wider path and this will take you back to the parking area.
Ascent to the arches
Ancient pit for the extraction of copper-containing rock
Mining shaft from the Egyptian period