 Entrance to the gallery in the Ḥangalīya gold mine | ||
| Ḥangalīya gold mine · منجم حنجلية | ||
| Governorate | Red Sea | |
|---|---|---|
| height | 702 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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The Hangaliya gold mine, Arabic:منجم حنجلية, Manǧam Ḥanǧalīya, rarely too Hangariya, is an abandoned one egyptian Gold mine in Wādī Ḥangalīya in the Wādī-el-Gimāl-Ḥamāṭa National Park north of the approximately 30 kilometers long mountain range that extends from northwest to southeast 1 Gebel Ḥafāfīt and west of the 1240 meter high 2 Gebel Ḥangalīya.
background
Location of the gold mine
The gold mine is located in the Red Sea Mountains in the Eastern or Arabian desert, about 670 kilometers as the crow flies south-southwest of Cairo, 175 km east of Edfu and 40 km southwest of Marsā ʿAlam away. The mine is located on the south side of a mountain valley, the one of the same name Wādī Ḥangalīyaaccessible from the west. The mine is surrounded on all sides by the sandstone and slate cliffs of the Red Sea Mountains. The highest peaks are in the south with the 30 km long mountain range Gebel Ḥafāfītwhich reaches a height of 1221 meters,[1] in the southeast with the 1505/1475 meter high Gebel Nugruṣ / Nuqruṣ[2] and in the east with the 1240 meter high Gebel Ḥangalīya[3].
Mine sites
In the eastern desert, over 250 locations are known to have been mined for gold in the past. About halfway between Marsā ʿAlam and the Ḥangalīya gold mine is the largest gold mine in Egypt that has been exploited today, the 3 es-Sukkarī gold minebut which cannot be visited.
Three mining forts are known in the area of dreiangalīya. One site was only used in the New Kingdom, the other mines were used by the New Kingdom with interruptions until the first half of the 20th century.
Gold mining in Egypt
The wealth of gold in Egypt is legendary. In Egypt, gold is mainly used as free gold Quartz veins in the basement, surrounded by granite or slate. The gold-containing quartz was able to mineralize out of the hot solution in duct crevice or shear zone systems. The corridors are a few centimeters to one and a half meters thick. The gold content averaged one ounce (31.5 g) per ton of quartz ore, but mostly higher. Even in the heaps at the water points, gold contents of 5 grams per ton were still detectable. The gold content of the metal produced corresponded to the natural composition and was between 17 carats (about 70 percent) and 22 carats (about 92 percent), depending on the composition in the mining area. Additions were silver and copper. A refinement was probably only known since Persian times. From the time of the king Thutmose III. (18th Dynasty) an annual gold production of about 250 kilograms is handed down.[4]
A temporal allocation of the deposits is mainly possible via found tools and settlements together with their inventory. For this purpose, interdisciplinary studies were carried out from 1989 to 1999 by the Institute for General and Applied Geology and the Institute for Egyptology, both based in Munich.
Gold has been around since pre- and early dynastic times (3000 BC) over the entire ancient Egyptian period, the Greco-Roman, Arabic promoted and used up to modern times. In the pre- and early dynastic times there was no systematic dismantling. The gold was simply picked up in sporadic finds by the inhabitants of the desert or washed out of sand fractions. The nuggets, so-called soap gold, were then z. B. forged for pearls.
The systematic dismantling was only since Old kingdom performed. For this purpose, expeditions organized by the military were carried out under the direction of Egyptian officials. The deposits used were located directly in the area of the known routes to the Red Sea in the northern part of the eastern desert. There were hardly any settlements. Only a few houses were built with dry stone walls for two to three dozen people.
The exploration of the deposits was based on the green color of the copper sulfide and carbonate minerals embedded in the quartz veins. The quarrying was carried out by locals who knocked the quartz ore out of the rock from the surface with stone mallets used with both hands and at the same time crushed it. This resulted in gangpinges that are up to 15 cm deep and up to ten meters long. It is not known where the quartz powder was processed into gold. The processing of the precious metal was carried out in the Nile Valley by metal workers who, as depictions in official graves show, were able to melt and forge gold.
in the Middle realm new tools were used. Axes have already been used for the dismantling and further processing has occasionally been carried out in stone mortars. The on-site dismantling and further processing in the area of larger wells was carried out by locals who were particularly familiar with the location of the wells. Initially, the gold was washed out under running water, whereby the heavier gold barrels remained on the ground. Later the slurried quartz flour was poured over animal skins, in which the gold particles got stuck. The hide was then burned and the gold melted from the ashes.
Since New Kingdom the gold mining extended to the southern part of the eastern desert up to Wādī el-ʿAllāqī from where the most important gold mines were located. This is also when the local gold mine opened. The exploration had to be rearranged: the search was now mainly for white to gray quartz vein varieties on the surface. Most of the mining was still carried out by the desert dwellers. The ore was chopped off with copper chisels and the mining was driven deeper. It was carried out in man-wide sections, so that depending on the thickness of the quartz veins, sometimes also deaf rock had to be mined. The quartz ore then had to be knocked on anvil stones to about the size of a pea and then ground on special grinders and stones before the gold could be washed out.
In later times hardly any new deposits were explored. Known systems have been expanded and deepened. The maximum depth was about 30 meters, so that oil lamps could still be used. In Ptolemaic period a new type of mill and washing systems were used, which were known from Greek silver mines in the Aegean Sea and on Crete. The mills consisted of a concave friction plate with a friction stone. In Roman times, only deep mining was carried out. Rotary mills and inclined washstands with catch basins were now used for the drained water, which could be reused in this way.
From the time of the king Ptolemy VI there is a contemporary description of Agatharchides of Knidos (around 208 to 132/131 BC), as a quote from Diodor and Photius (820-891) has been handed down.[5] He reported inter alia. of prisoners of war and prisoners of war with no means of escape who carried out the dismantling. In places with extremely hard stone, with Setting fire loosened the ore. The work in the mine was divided according to the physical abilities of the children, women and men. Due to the deficiencies in the representation, it seems that Agatharchides was probably not there in person.
Gold was mined in a similar way in Arab times. Since the 19th century, the dismantling has been accelerated again. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the waste dumps have been treated with cyanide leaching.
getting there
An all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle is required to get there.
The journey is usually made on the highway 212 Edfu-Marsā ʿAlam. The small village is 40 kilometers west of Marsā āAlam 1 Sīdī Sālim(25 ° 2 ′ 51 ″ N.34 ° 31 '49 "E), سيدي سالم, With the tomb of the saint on the north side of the road and the village on the south side. One branches off immediately to the west of the village 1 25 ° 2 ′ 51 ″ N.34 ° 31 '45 "E from the trunk road an asphalt road (طريق الشيخ سالم الشيخ شاذلي, „Ṭarīq al-Sheikh Sālim al-Sheikh Shādhilī“) Towards the south Sheikh Shādhilī which can be reached after 105 kilometers.
After 30 kilometers from the last-mentioned junction, you branch off at 2 24 ° 50 ′ 27 ″ N.34 ° 29 ′ 46 ″ E to the east on a desert road, the Wādī Ḥangalīya. You follow the piste without branching off and after 10 kilometers you get to the former 4 Gold mine.
You can also take the trunk road from the Nile Valley Aswan–Ḥalāʾib (طريق حلائب أسوان, Ṭarīq Ḥalāʾib Aswān) until after Sheikh Shādhilī drive and turn north from there. From the Red Sea you can use the Sheikh Shadhili-Berenike highway from Raʾs Banās.
Coming to Wādī el-Gimāl one branches at 3 24 ° 33 '37 "N.34 ° 46 ′ 44 ″ E to Wādī Ḥafāfīt, south of the Gebel Ḥafāfīt, and after about 25 kilometers you reach the trunk road to Sīdī Sālim and after about 35 kilometers you get to the above-mentioned branch in the Wādī Ḥangalīya.
mobility
You can drive to the mine right in front of the tunnel.
Tourist Attractions
Usually you only visit a modern mine, which was probably only exploited since the 19th century and abandoned in the middle of the 20th century. A flashlight is required to visit the mine. And be careful.
The tunnel, which leads to the now exhausted gold-bearing quartz veins, is reached via a platform about one meter high on the south side of the wadi. This main tunnel leads south and is about two meters wide and high. Just a few meters behind the entrance there is a shaft to the former quartz passage, which was about 40 to 60 centimeters thick. From here another tunnel leads east, in which one can clearly see the location of the former quartz passage. Due to the degradation it is now about a man's width and still has stepping wood in several places. The access from the tunnel to the quartz corridor upwards was via wooden ladders, some of which were left on site.
Further up there is another entry that leads to the same quartz passage.
To the east of the gold mine, there are remains of residential buildings and workshops in several places.
kitchen
All food and drinks, but also dishes and stoves, must be carried with you during the entire expedition.
accommodation
Excursions to the Ḥangalīya gold mine can be carried out as day trips, so that the question of an overnight stay on site does not arise. In Marsā ʿAlam there are numerous overnight accommodations.
For an overnight stay in the national park itself you need a permit from the military and the national park administration. There are no campsites in the national park. Tents have to be brought along, and you need some outdoor experience to find suitable sheltered and level set-up places.
trips
A visit to the Ḥangalīya gold mine can be arranged with different places in the Wādī-el-Gimāl-Ḥamāṭa National Park or by visiting the pilgrimage site of Sheikh Shādhilī connect.
literature
- : Ancient Egyptian materials and industries. London: Arnold, 1962 (4th edition), Pp. 228-231.
- : Chronological outline of ancient gold mining in the eastern desert of Egypt. In:Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK), ISSN0342-1279, Vol.50 (1994), Pp. 189-222, panels 29-35. — : Gold of the Pharaohs: 6000 years of gold mining in Egypt and Nubia. In:Journal of African Earth Sciences (JAES), ISSN1464-343X, Vol.33 (2001), Pp. 643–659, doi:10.1016 / S0899-5362 (01) 00094-X.
- : Genesis of the gold deposit districts Fatira, Gidami, Atalla and Hangaliya in the Egyptian eastern desert. Munich: Inst. For General and Applied Geology, Univ. Munich, 1999, Munich geological booklets / A; 27.
- : Gold and gold mining in ancient Egypt and Nubia: geoarchaeology of the ancient gold mining sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese Eastern deserts. Berlin [and others]: Jumper, 2013, Natural science in archeology, ISBN 978-3-642-22507-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑Estimate on GeoNames.org.
- ↑Estimate on GeoNames.org 1475 meters, while on the map sheet NG-36-16 (G. Hamata) of the U.S. Army the height was entered 1505 meters.
- ↑On GeoNames.org the estimate is 1044 meters, while on map sheet NG-36-16 (G. Hamata) of U.S. Army entered the altitude 1240 meters.
- ↑: Egypt and Nubia: A Contribution to the History of Ancient Egyptian Foreign Policy. Lund: Ohlsson, 1941, P. 210.
- ↑Diodorus, Historical library, 3rd book, §§ 12-14. See for example: : Diodor’s historical library of Sicily translated by Julius Friedrich Wurm; Vol.2. Stuttgart: Slaughterer, 1828, Pp. 258-261 (3rd book, §§ 12-14). — : Agatharchides of Knidos: Across the Red Sea; Translation and commentary. Bamberg, 1966, Pp. 18–23, 110–125 (commentary): Book 5, §§ 23–29. According to Photius, Codex 250, and Diodor, op. a. O.
