Ancient site · Qena
Wadi Hammamat
A dry valley in the Eastern Desert that served as caravan route, mine and quarry from pharaonic times, rich in rock inscriptions thousands of years old.
The story
Wadi Hammamat is a dry riverbed in the Eastern Desert, east of Qena and roughly midway between Qena and Quseir. It has been known since the beginnings of pharaonic civilization, and its gold mines and greywacke quarries, known as Bekhen stone, were worked for millennia. The valley was strategically placed because it gave access to the caravan route between Coptos and the Red Sea, the most direct link between the Nile Valley and the sea. Rock carvings and inscriptions spanning three thousand years make it an important scientific and tourist site.
Good to know
- Its name means "valley of the baths", and its ancient Egyptian name was Rô-hanou, "outlet of the waters".
- Bekhen stone (greywacke) was quarried here from pharaonic times.