Beno Rothenberg, the main excavator of the Timna Valley area before more recent work started in 2009, excavated a small Egyptian temple dedicated to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of mining, at the base of Solomon’s Pillars. The dates presented here are Rothenberg’s using the means available at the time, and they have been proven wrong my recent research.
According to Rothenberg, the temple was built during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I at the end of the 14th century BCE, for the Egyptian miners. The shrine housed an open courtyard with a cella, an area cut into the rock to presumably house a statue of the deity. Earthquake damage caused the temple to be rebuilt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BCE, with a larger courtyard and more elaborate walls and floors. The dimensions of the original shrine were 15 by 15 metres, and it was faced with white sandstone that was found only at the mining site, several kilometres away. The hieroglyphics, sculptures, and jewellery found in the temple totalled several thousand artifacts, have provided a lot of important information for archaeologists.
