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PHOTO BY JUAN MANUEL TEBES

DESERT LANDSCAPE. The Timna Valley, located in the Wadi Arava, was a major source of copper throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The pharaohs of New Kingdom Egypt launched extensive mining and smelting operations at Timna (13th–12th centuries B.C.E.) that engaged members of the local nomadic tribes as miners, smiths, and laborers. Since the 1960s, archaeologists have unearthed evidence of Timna’s smelting camps and metallurgical workshops (one shown below, the fenced area to the left), as well as several open-air shrines (fenced area to the right) used by the mine’s itinerant workers.