Solomon's Pillars
Interesting facts
- By 1990, Beno Rothenberg's Arabah Expedition had recorded some 10,000 copper mines and smelting camps in and around the Timna Valley.
- The Egyptian shrine of Hathor at the base of the pillars measured about 15 by 15 metres and was faced with white sandstone hauled from several kilometres away.
- After an earthquake damaged the shrine, it was rebuilt under Ramesses II in the 13th century BCE with a larger courtyard and more elaborate walls and floors.
- Steps cut into the rock beside the shrine lead up to a carving that shows Pharaoh Ramesses III together with the goddess Hathor.
- Smelting camps near the pillars yielded what may be the earliest bones of domesticated camels found in Israel, dated to around 930 BCE.
- Luminescence dating near the valley's 'Chariots' rock drawings showed that the mining techniques visible there span roughly 6,000 years.
- Ancient Egyptians valued Timna copper not only for ornaments but for stone-cutting saws, which were worked together with abrasive sand.
- The park around the pillars also holds a life-size replica of the biblical Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary of the Exodus story.
Why it is worth it
Solomon's Pillars are a row of massive columns carved by erosion out of the red sandstone cliffs of the Timna Valley, in the far south of Israel's Arava desert. Water seeping through fractures in the cliff over long ages widened the cracks until the face separated into distinct, pillar-like buttresses, giving it the look of a colossal colonnade. The surrounding rock is mostly red, but in places the sand shifts to yellow, orange, grey, brown or black, and near the old copper workings it turns light green or blue.
The name is a modern one. In the 1930s the archaeologist Nelson Glueck linked the copper mines of Timna with King Solomon and called the area "King Solomon's Mines", an attribution that has not held up: radiocarbon dating of the 10th-century BCE workings points instead to the Edomites. Copper had in fact been mined in the valley since the 6th or 5th millennium BCE. Surveys led from 1959 by Beno Rothenberg recorded thousands of mines and smelting camps across the region.
At the very foot of the pillars, Rothenberg's team excavated a small Egyptian shrine to Hathor, goddess of mining. It was founded under Pharaoh Seti I in the late 14th century BCE and rebuilt under Ramesses II, and yielded thousands of objects, including inscriptions and sculpture. Nearby, the valley holds other curiosities of erosion: the Mushroom, a lone red hoodoo ringed by ancient smelting sites, and natural arches along the western cliff, as well as rock drawings of chariots carved in the Egyptian period. The valley is protected as Timna Park, and the pillars serve as a backdrop for open-air concerts.
Getting there
Timna Park lies about 25–30 km north of Eilat. The nearest airport is Ramon International Airport (ETM), about 7 km away.
On these lists
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