 East side of the Kaʿb Marfūʿ settlement | ||
| Kaʿb Marfūʿ · كعب مرفوع | ||
| Governorate | Red Sea | |
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Kab Marfu ', also Kab Marfua, Arabic:كعب مرفوع, Kaʿb Marfūʿ, is the modern name for a Roman settlement in Wādī el-Gimāl at the southern end of the emerald mining area of Mons Smaragdus in the Arabian desert in Egyptwhich was abandoned in the fifth century AD.
Kaʿb Marfūʿ is located about 65 kilometers southwest of Marsā ʿAlam and about a kilometer north of a small Roman fort, one praesidiums, which certainly passed on that Apollonos (Apollonos Hydreium) forms. A well station belonged to this fort, one hydreuma.
background
Obviously there are no ancient records of this settlement. The former name of the settlement is also unknown. The term Kaʿb Marfūʿ is modern and used by the ʿAbabda Bedouins who live here.
Only the small Roman fort to the south Apollonos has been through since the first century AD Pliny the Elder (23 / 24–79) in his natural history[1] and later documents like that Itinerarium Antonini and on the Peutinger's table occupied. Plinus stated that it was on the route from Koptos, today's Qifṭ, according to Berenike, for which it took twelve days with camels at that time, there were several well stations. Apollonos is 184,000 steps, about 136 kilometers, from Koptos.
The Kaʿb Marfūʿ settlement was investigated in the late 1990s as part of the Berenike Project of the Universities of Delaware (USA) and Leiden (Netherlands) under the direction of Steven E. Sidebotham. There are around one hundred buildings on an area of around 250 × 300 meters. Graves were found in the south of the settlement and stone piles and watchtowers in the vicinity of the settlement.
Ceramic finds indicate the use of the Kaʿb Marfū settlement from the first to the fifth century AD. The ceramics came partly from local production by the desert dwellers, partly from the Nile Valley and, as in the case of amphorae, was partly imported.
There were no mining facilities for emeralds in the immediate vicinity of the settlement. Finds of quartz minerals point to the further processing of emeralds that were delivered here from other places.
The pottery finds from the former fort were also found Apollonos investigated that prove its use between the first and sixth centuries AD.
getting there
Getting there is relatively easy, as the settlement is in close proximity to Wādī el-Gimāl. After about 50 kilometers one branches off 1 24 ° 32 ′ 13 ″ N.34 ° 44 ′ 54 ″ E to the northwest into a side valley and reaches the 1 settlement(24 ° 32 '37 "N.34 ° 44 ′ 18 ″ E) after about one and a half kilometers. From the branch mentioned above, after a good kilometer, you reach the castle, which is now silted up 2 Apollonos(24 ° 32 ′ 5 ″ N.34 ° 44 ′ 15 ″ E) on the north side
About 4 kilometers before the aforementioned junction joins 2 24 ° 33 '36 "N.34 ° 46 '48 "E. the Wādī Ḥafāfīt into the Wādī el-Gimāl. Via the Wādī Ḥafāfīt one can get to the main road from Sīdī Sālim to Sheikh Shādhilī reach.
mobility
The subsoil of the settlement is sandy. In particular, if you want to get an overview of the settlement, you have to climb the rocks.
Tourist Attractions
The Kaʿb Marfūʿ settlement is largely located on both sides of a wadi. Some of the buildings were erected on the sandy Wadigrund. Even today, the remains of around one hundred buildings can be made out over an area of around 250 × 300 meters.
The construction is different. Some buildings are very large and surrounded by carefully constructed dry stone walls. They stand up to three meters in line, have windows, shelf niches and lintels made of large stone slabs. There is no indication of the type of roofs. They were probably made of wooden beams. One of these buildings could even have had a second floor, as the remains of the stairs can still be made out.
Another part of the building consists of natural boulders and partly uses the rocky slopes as walls. In some buildings there were also small stables.
One of the carefully constructed buildings is one 3 Building group(24 ° 32 '38 "N.34 ° 44 ′ 19 ″ E) in the north of the settlement. These could have been administrative buildings.
In the far north there is a large one about halfway up the mountain 4 building(24 ° 32 ′ 40 ″ N.34 ° 44 ′ 18 ″ E) on a platform about 15 × 20 meters in size and up to 4 meters high, to which a staircase led. The building has the main entrance at the south end and another smaller entrance on the east side. Unfortunately there is no indication of the purpose of the building. Because of the outstanding location, the excavators around Sidebotham suspect that this could have been a temple.
Kitchen, lodging, security
See in the article:Wādī-el-Gimāl-Ḥamāṭa National Park.
trips
- Close:
- About one kilometer south of Kaʿb Marfūʿ is the small Roman fort that praesidium, Apollonos, which is one of the largest in the Egyptian eastern desert. The fort, about one hectare in size, is now silted up and was probably surrounded by an adobe wall. The northwest wall can still be made out to a length of 120 meters, the northeast wall to 75 meters. There were obviously bastions at the corners and along the fortress walls.
- About 1.7 kilometers south-southeast of the fort is another settlement where emeralds were both mined and processed. This nameless settlement has the not very prosaic name in science 5 Wādī el-Gimāl A.(24 ° 31 ′ 13 ″ N.34 ° 44 ′ 34 ″ E) receive.[2]
- Along the Wādī el-Gimāl:
- A trip to Kaʿb Marfūʿ can be made with a visit to Umm kaboo, Sikait and Wādī Nugruṣ connect. Umm Kābū is the easternmost station, Kaʿb Marfūʿ the westernmost.
literature
- : The enigma of Kab Marfu’a: precious gems in Egypt’s Eastern desert. In:Minerva: the international review of ancient art & archeology, ISSN0957-7718, Vol.16,1, Pp. 24-26.
- : The Red Land: the illustrated archeology of Egypt’s Eastern desert. Cairo: American University at Cairo Press, 2008, ISBN 978-977-416-094-3 , Pp. 131, 133.
Individual evidence
- ↑Natural history, Book 6, § 26. - See e.g. B. : The natural history of Cajus Plinius Secundus; Vol. 1: (I - VI. Book): Dedication, table of contents, cosmography and geography. Leipzig: Gressner & Schramm, 1881, P. 453.
- ↑Designation according to: : Emerald mining in Roman and Byzantine Egypt. In:Journal of Roman archeology (JRA), ISSN1047-7594, Vol.12 (1999), Pp. 203–215, in particular pp. 210 f, doi:10.1017 / S1047759400017980.
