Egyptian Miners' Temple of Hathor, Timna Valley Park, Israel, 2006 (photo)

Timna Park lies in the middle of the Red Sea Desert, approximately 25 km north of Eilat, contains the world's earliest mine, belonging to the period when man first learned to produce copper (4,000 BC). In the 14th to 12th centuries BC, the period of the new Kingdom of Egypt, pharaonic mining expeditions developed extensive copper industries in the Timna valley. A local Egyptian shrine for the production site workers was also discovered here. The temple, dating from the 13th-12th centuries BC, was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, the patron god of miners.