This whole development started with copper. Timna is full of copper ore, as is biblical Punon (modern Feinan), 90 miles to the north on Jordan's side of the Arava. In many places the ore appears as green patches, sometimes giving the illusion of grass. The copper was originally in the crystalline stone of the area, such as the granite of Mt. Timna: long ago, flowing water separated the copper ore from the rock and deposited it in shallow bays. The main forms are chalcocite and blue-green malachite. Today called Eilat stone, the latter was also a favorite jewelry stone in antiquity.

The average copper content of the ore does not top 3%, but the known reserves amount to 22 million tons, and there have been times when mining has been worthwhile. The modern Israelis mined copper here, mainly for copper cement, although the works are no longer in production. 

If we left the main road in order to see the drawings, we now return to it and follow it to its end, a parking lot. Here the white sandstone forms natural arches. The fit and adventurous may wish to take the blue-marked trail to the right; it will lead down a series of small dry water chutes and then to a modest canyon. Otherwise we follow it to the left. On the way, we see the opening of a vertical shaft like the one in the photo. About a thousand such shafts have been discovered, although most today are filled with sand, giving the effect of round plates. They served for air, as well as entrance and exit.

In the canyon we can see the horizontal shafts in which the miners worked. We can gather in the anteroom of one and hear
Job 28:

Surely there is a mine for silver

And a place where they refine gold.

Iron is taken from the dust,

And copper is smelted from rock.

Man puts an end to darkness,

And to the farthest limit he searches out

The rock in gloom and deep shadow.

He sinks a shaft far from habitation,

Forgotten by the foot;

They hang and swing to and fro far from men.

The earth, from it comes food,

And underneath it is turned up as fire.

Its rocks are the source of sapphires,

And its dust contains gold.

The path no bird of prey knows,

Nor has the falcon's eye caught sight of it.

The proud beasts have not trodden it,

Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

He puts his hand on the flint;

He overturns the mountains at the base.

He hews out channels through the rocks,

And his eye sees anything precious.

He dams up the streams from flowing,

And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

But where can wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

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We return to the bus and drive back on the road that brought us here. After a mile or so there is a place to pull over on the right. Here we see a piece of sandstone eroded into the shape of a mushroom. Around it are the remains of a large Egyptian-Midianite smelting camp, including the replica of an oven. The original is in the Haaretz Museum (after reaching its page, go to Permanent Exhibitions and choose "5" for the Nechushtan Pavilion).

There is also a contemporary picture of the Egyptian smelting process, among other crafts, in the tomb of Rechmire, vizier to Pharaoh Thutmosis III. In the upper register, on the left, two workers are gingerly removing a hot copper ingot from the oven. To their right we see an earlier stage of the process: one worker operates the bellows while another pokes into the oven to keep the temperature up. The one on the bellows works with hands and feet: he raises one foot with a rope so that the bellows will fill with air, at the same time stamping on a second bellows so that it will emit its air into the oven - this alternately. In the lower register, the same two scenes are repeated in reverse order. 

After the copper separated from its ore and dropped to the bottom of the oven, a worker opened a hole in the side of the oven and the slag poured through a channel into a pit.