Egyptian Turquoise: The Historic Sinai Mines
Egyptian Turquoise — A Stone Study
← Part of the T.Skies Turquoise Stone Study
Real Egyptian turquoise from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio: a bundle of heishi strands and polished stones in bright blue with dark brown spiderweb matrix. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Heishi bead strands, blue with dark brown matrix
Polished stones, bright blue with brown spiderweb matrix
Documented stone examples from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Not for sale individually — shown for reference. © Turquoise Skies Inc.
Turquoise sold as Egyptian turquoise takes its name from one of the oldest turquoise sources in the world. The stones shown above are from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio. They were acquired as Egyptian turquoise; we do not have documentation tying them to a specific mine, so we describe them by trade name only.
The historic source: the Sinai mines
Egypt’s first major turquoise came from two mining areas in the Sinai Peninsula, Wadi Maghara and Serabit el-Khadim, ten miles apart. They were among the world’s first important hard-rock mines for turquoise, malachite and copper. By 1915 the geologist Joseph Pogue judged them exhausted, “or, at least,” not “successfully operated for a very long period.”
Lowry & Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story (2010), p. 45; Pogue, The Turquois (1915), pp. 8, 29.
What the old sources say about the stone
Pogue described Sinai turquoise as “of pleasing color,” but “held in less esteem than the Persian product because of its somewhat glassy appearance and greater tendency to fade.” George F. Kunz, Tiffany’s gemologist, noted that the stone, “although dark-blue when found, often changes in a short time to a verdigris green.”
Pogue (1915), p. 134; Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (1890), p. 54.
See every mine we document, by location, in our Turquoise Mines Identifier.
Compare this mine with every other: Turquoise Mines Identifier, a documented stone study, mine by mine.
From the Library: Pogue, The Turquois (1915)
1915 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1915, not today.
Pogue (1915) described the record left at the Sinai workings:
“Rock carvings including this word are abundant on the cliffs and monuments surrounding turquois mines in the Sinai Peninsula, and the translation of these ancient documents shows that mining operations in search of turquois were intermittently prosecuted there under Egyptian direction from the first to the twentieth dynasties.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 9
Pogue (1915) described a pattern seen in some Sinai stone:
“In rare cases, as illustrated by some of the Sinai stones, a fine network of lighter streaks upon a darker background is visible.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 23
Despite Sinai stone's reputation for fading, Pogue (1915) noted that
“Some of the Sinai turquoises mined thousands of years ago still retain a good color”
— Pogue (1915), p. 24
Writing in 1915, Pogue classed Sinai as the leading example of turquoise in sedimentary rock:
“The Sinai occurrence is the principal representative; here the turquois occurs in sandstone along with limonite. Not sufficient is known of the geology and mineralogy of this occurrence to afford safe detailed deductions as to origin.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 66
According to Pogue (1915, p. 61), Berthelot believed the Sinai turquoise had been deposited by waters percolating down from above.
According to Pogue (1915, p. 61), Petrie, in his 1906 Researches in Sinai, attributed the stone's phosphoric acid to organisms buried in the sandstone as it was laid down.
According to Pogue (1915, p. 69), an Egyptian mining colony was working the Sinai turquoise deposits by the start of the First Dynasty, and inscriptions left by the miners show work continuing, on and off, until the close of the Twentieth Dynasty, which he dated to about 1100 B.C.
Pogue opened his 1915 survey of turquoise localities here:
“The oldest mines of turquois in the world are situated on the Sinai Peninsula. These were extensively and systematically worked at various periods by the ancient Egyptians, but for the past 3,000 years have not been an important source of the mineral.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 28
Following Petrie, Pogue (1915) described how the ancient miners worked:
“The actual mining was done mostly with copper chisels, struck by heavy stone hammers with handles of wood. By this means blocks of matrix were detached, which were crushed in basalt pounders, and the turquois picked out by hand.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 32
Pogue (1915) told how Major MacDonald's 1850s-60s revival of the Maghareh mines went wrong:
“The earliest consignments of turquoises found a ready sale at a good profit on the English market, and the venture promised well. Many of the stones, however, were soon found to fade and whiten; and then as larger shipments arrived the trade became suspicious of the Sinai stones, and the later packets could only be sold at auction at whatever they would bring.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 33
Writing in 1915, Pogue named the best source within Maghareh:
“The stones of the best color come from a mine called Yahudia, which has a wide entrance chamber with two branching galleries.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 34
Pogue (1915, p. 34) reported that an English company mining the Sinai deposits in 1902 soon gave up, and that 'the local tribes have resumed undisturbed possession of the deposits.'
How this page is sourced. We strive for accuracy: the historical statements on this page are quoted from the printed works listed below, with page numbers, and the page is updated with new information as we read more of our library. See something we should correct? Contact us.
From the Library: Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
According to Branson (1975, p. 2), a bracelet of carved turquoise and gold found on the mummified arm of an Egyptian queen was the oldest known example of jewelry, which he dated to more than seven thousand years before his time. [3]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone (2010)
2010 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2010, not today.
Lowry (2010) on the larger of the two Sinai fields:
“Several mine sites and a temple to Hathor were at Serabit el-Khadim, the larger of the two major mining areas in the Sinai.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 47 [4]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 47), Middle and New Kingdom inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim record expeditions by sea and by overland caravans of fifty to five hundred donkeys and two hundred to seven hundred men, generally led by treasury officials. [4]
On look-alikes, Lowry (2010) wrote that turquoise-colored faience was used so widely in Egypt
“so much so that small pieces of faience and turquoise set in artifacts could often be misidentified as the gem turquoise.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 49 [4]
As of 2010, Lowry reported:
“Today's Bedouin culture still occasionally mines and rockhounds the same area of mines that their ancestors worked more than five hundred years ago.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 49 [4]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 49), there were reports of sporadic modern turquoise-mining expeditions in the Serabit el-Khadim area, and turquoise found there was sold in Suez City. [4]
From the Library: Khazeni, Sky Blue Stone (2014)
2014 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2014, not today.
Khazeni (2014) summarised the Sinai's place in the story:
“The stone was linked to copper working and was first extracted from the earth in the Sinai Peninsula, at the deposits of Wadi Maghara and Sarabit al-Khadim, which were depleted around the twelfth century B.C.E.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 12 [5]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 15), the British cavalry officer Charles Macdonald set out in the 1840s to reopen the Sinai mines; he moved there with his family, built a stone house, equipped local Bedouin with gunpowder for mining, and worked for years to revive them. [5]
Khazeni (2014) on how early the Sinai mines were known:
“The turquoise mines of the Sinai materialized in sandstone ridges connected to the working of nearby copper mines and were known to the Egyptians before 5500 B.C.E.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 19 [5]
Stacey (1975, p. 26) also places the start of Egyptian turquoise working in the Sinai before the first dynasty, at approximately 5500 B.C. [7]
According to Khazeni (2014, pp. 19–20), the Wadi Maghara mines were the first to be exploited, and their inscriptions run from those of Sneferu (r. c. 2613–2589 B.C.E.), of the Fourth Dynasty, to an expedition sent by Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty. [5]
Khazeni (2014) on who did the work:
“Captives worked the mines for more than two thousand years, the marks of their metal tools chiseled into the steep sandstone walls and cavernous rocks of Wadi Maghara.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 20 [5]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 20), Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1508–1458 B.C.E.) ordered the Wadi Maghara mines, unworked for nearly four hundred years, to be reopened, and sent an agent to inspect the valleys and veins and restore the temple of Hathor. [5]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
Lowry (2002) on the Sinai mines:
“One of these, at Serabit El-Khadem, may have been worked as early as 3500 B.C.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 8 [6]
From the Library: Stacey, Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Joseph Stacey, writing in 1975, on the oldest jewelry then known:
“Archaeologists excavating in the cemetery of the royal tombs at Abydos, in upper Egypt, unearthed the oldest group of jewelry known in the world. Included in the treasure were bracelets of gold and turquoise.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 26 [7]
Stacey (1975) on the mines since:
“For the past 3000 years the Sinai Mines have not produced anything of importance.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 26 [7]
Field Notes by Mateo James
I notice Pogue (1915), following Petrie's chronology, dated Sneferu to 4887-4757 B.C. and called him the last king of the third dynasty, while Khazeni (2014) gives his reign as c. 2613–2589 B.C.E. and places him in the Fourth Dynasty. Pogue himself warned that more conservative estimates put these events about 1,000 years later.
I notice the two books tell the Wadi Maghara story differently. Khazeni (2014) writes that its veins were exhausted and its mining colonies gone by around 2100 B.C.E., after which work moved to Serabit al-Khadim; Pogue (1915), following Petrie, has the miners turning back to Maghareh under Amenemhat III and reworking it at least into the eighteenth dynasty.
Sources
- Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915. Public domain. Cited by printed page.
- Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of North America. New York, 1890. Cited by page.
- Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.
- Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2014.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.