Emerald mines, Wadi Nugrus, Red Sea Governorate, Egypti

Regional Level Types
Emerald mines	Mine
Wadi Nugrus	Wadi
Red Sea Governorate	Governorate
Egypt	Country

The following description of the locality can be found in Shaw & Bunbury (2003):

"Wadi Nuqrus (6th - 9th centuries AD)

The Wadi Nuqrus mines and settlement (34° 48.98' E, 24° 37.27' N) are located on the east side of the Wadi Nuqrus, a few kilometres to the north of Wadi Gimal B. The mines in the Wadi Nuqrus were far more extensive and richer in emeralds than the two Wadi Gimal mines, and were therefore presumably exploited over a longer period. There would thus have been more incentive to invest in the settlement. On the northern side of the wadi, the buildings are situated over a band of metamorphosed sandy material that marks the upper limit of this part of the site.

Unfortunately, the geological context in which the emeralds formed in the Wadi Nuqrus mines has proved somewhat difficult to elucidate, given the fact that the location in which they formed (just below the main area of settlement) is now almost entirely covered by the miners' tip heaps, each consisting of a central depression surrounded by debris. It seems, however, that the lode formed an inclined slab parallel to the surface of the hill. This slab appears to have been worked from the bottom of the slope upwards, and the discarded material would thus have been tipped back onto the already exhausted workings. The dimensions of the tips 3 to 4m wide and about 2m deep - are much greater than those at Wadi Gimal A and B, and there is no evidence for the two-tier tipping described at the Wadi Gimal sites. Grains of emerald and clasts containing emerald are common among the tips, and the great variation in the size of the clasts (ranging from pieces with a width of 20cm to fine grains of sand) suggests that the minerals were extracted in one stage. On the south side of the wadi there are fewer tips and some indications of ancient excavation of the rock, consisting of a number of pits and a tunnel, focusing on the margins of a quartz band about one metre thick at the bottom of the hillside. A small rockfall shows that part of the hillside had been undermined, and a thick quartz band rises to the crest of the ridge northwest of the area of undermining. In the immediate proximity of the quartz band, two pits have been excavated, and to the east of these, large slabs of schist have been partly exposed."

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References