Nawamis of the Sinai Desert
Nawamis · Sinai Desert Kites - Cairns
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (~4000–3000 BCE)·Sinai pastoralist (Nawamis culture, Timnian)·🇪🇬 South Sinai, Saint Catherine, Egypt
About
About Nawamis of the Sinai Desert
Fields of roughly 100 dry-stone beehive tombs 2–5 m diameter on the high Sinai plateau between Ein Khudra and Wadi Watir, each a corbelled cairn with single entrance facing west. Ofer Bar-Yosef's excavations recovered contracted burials with Red Sea shell beads and copper awls. Arabic nawwamis (mosquitoes) reflects Bedouin belief the dead become insects; they align along wadis that guided copper caravans between Timna and Egypt.
Why it mattersFields of roughly 100 dry-stone beehive tombs 2–5 m diameter on the high Sinai plateau between Ein Khudra and Wadi Watir, each a corbelled cairn with single entrance facing west. Ofer Bar-Yosef's exca
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Standardized west-facing aperture – solar cult or wadi orientation?
- 02Absence of settlement remains despite dense mortuary landscape
Theories
- 01Transhumant pastoral cemetery aggregating seasonal dispersals into Sinai interior
- 02Copper-trade shrine line marking the earliest Egyptian–Levantine exchange corridor
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.4000–3150 BCE (radiocarbon on charcoal under walls)
- Period
- Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (~4000–3000 BCE)
- Culture
- Sinai pastoralist (Nawamis culture, Timnian)
- Purpose
- Corbelled sandstone burial cairns and desert navigation shrines
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.4000–3150 BCE (radiocarbon on charcoal under walls)
Initial construction
c. 1430 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
29.5000° N · 34.5000° E · 1400 m · 2 mapped features
Ein Khudra Nawamis Field
necropolisCluster of 17 beehive tombs with west apertures on wadi terrace
29.5020° N · 34.5100° EWadi Watir Southern Group
necropolisIsolated Nawamis with shell bead horizon and copper awl burial
29.4950° N · 34.4900° E
Gallery