By Hend Somida

Serabit El Khadim is a rectangular hill which lies some 40 km to the east of Abu Znema , and about 38 km to the north of wadi el Maghara. it was in this hill that the ancient egyptians used to quarry turquoise since the dawn of their civilization, they dug a set of mines specially in the upper level of the hill which were accompanied by rock-carved steal in the name of their pharoahs.

The ancient Egyptians exploited turquoise in impressive quantities for the sake of the goddess Hathor, and to be sure that they were blessed by her they dug a small cave beside the
mines and their settlements in the beginning of the fourth Egyptian dynasty to worship Hathor as the Mistress of turquoise, from this time onward the cave grew up and became an unusual temple since the begining of the middle kingdom circa 2055 B.C., its precincts and the surrounding area was full of numerous rock-cut and freestanding stelae which were dedicated by mining expeditions mostly in the name of their pharaohs to the goddess Hathor.

Beside the temple of Hathor the ancient egyptians erected another one for the god Soped "guardian of the eastern desert" since 1503 B.c., to protect their expeditions from the wild nature of the eastern desert. Unfortunately both of the temples suffered a lot , but we can see some of their ruins still survive till now.

Serabit el khadim was not a place for mines but also it was one of the most important sites in Sinai for it contained an unusual written texts in a script known as Proto-sinatic. This script consist of at least 23 signs most of which were mainly derived from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic script, they are dated mainly to the late middle kingdom circa 1800-1650 B.c., the Phoenicians through the routes of trade and sea sailing transported this script to the Greeks whom they adopted in a new form near to their tongues which became a crucial stage in the development of the European alphabet.