By Gary McKay

Location:
This site is located at N 29°02' E 33°28' about 40 kilometers due east of Abu Zanima. It is accessed by a track along Wadi Baba and Wadi Garf. The final approaches are impassable by vehicle and it is necessary to proceed by foot along a 8 km. path. The main geology in the area belongs to Red Sea rift zone.

Surface:
Sinai geological structure falls within two groups, a Precambrian base which is largely exposed in the south and a triangular area of sedimentary layers in the north that becomes thicker and more pronounced near the Mediterranean coast. Boundary between the two lies on an east-west plane from Gebel Hamman Faraun on the Gulf of Suez to Nuweiba on the Gulf of Aqaba; this coincides with the Tih and Egma escarpments in the high centre of the peninsula. Based on age, the surface geology can be broken into seven groups. From oldest to youngest they are: Precambrian intrusives and metamorphics, Jurassic sedimentary strata, Cenomanian-Turonian limestones and dolomites, Senonian chalk, Eocene chalk and limestones, Oligocene and Miocene sediments and Miocene dikes, and Quartenary alluvium. The Sinai massif is composed of ancient Precambrian rocks dominating the south of the peninsula. 75% of the area is crystallized rock.
The area specific to Serabit El-Khadim consists of schists, gneisses, amphibolites (crystallines heavily mixed with hornblende), and migmatites (granite intrusives). There are also occasional marble and limestone outcroppings-obviously more numerous limestone outcroppings in the Serabit primary due to its long history as a site of copper and turquoise mining.

Mineral Resources:

In Sinai, turquoise has already been found in the caves of the first kings of Egypt (~ 3300 BC). As a conclusion, there was trade already as early as that between the original inhabitants of Sinai and the people from the Nile. The ancient Egyptians were especially interested in copper and turquoise from Wadi Magaharah und Serabit el-Khadem.

Geomorphology:
The geomorphic regions of the Sinai are dominated by the erosional wear of water primarily. Greenwood (1997) describes the peninsula as having nine geomorphic regions: Dune Sheet in the north and northwest, Insular Massifs, Suez Foreshore, Tih Plateau, Dead Sea Drainage, Dividing Valleys, Plain of El Qaa, Sinai Massif and Aqaba Foreshore. Serabit El-Khadim belongs to the Dividing Valleys geomorphic region in the lower middle south of the peninsula.

The larger region around Serabit El-Khadim, stretching from Wadi Garf to Wadi Baba is heavily eroded by cuts into the underlying sandstone. At the point where Wadi Garf enters Wadi Baba the sandstone gives way to marine deposits in the Carboniferous age. Here are found the ancient workings for turquoise with the outlying areas for the copper extraction.

South of this area lies the modern manganese mine workings at Umm Bugma which are reached via the track leading east up the Wadi Sidra or north, then south from the Wadi Baba track.