El-Markha plain as an access for pharaonic mining expeditions to South Sinai

الملخص EN

This paper displays the recent excavation’s works in El-Markha Plain beside what was discovered over the past years.

The ruins in this site can be concluded in Sites 346,346-a, 346-b, 346-c and 345 (Ras Budran).

A fort in site 346 had been discovered and dated to the New Kingdom; an additional fort had been discovered in Ras Budran and dated to the Late Old Kingdom.

Investigations on the Red Sea Coast at Ayn Soukhna brought to the light the discovery of a new harbor complex from the Old Kingdom attached to a nature anchorage at Wadi Al-Jarf in 2008.

The site is located on the western coast of the Gulf of Suez.

Inscriptions from Ayn Soukhna reveal that turquoise and copper mining expeditions sometimes utilized Ayn Soukhna as a way-station on route to South Sinai.