Emerald
is a grass-green variety of beryl gemstone. It took its name indirectly from
the Greek Smaragdos. It is ranked third in importance between all the
gemstones. It is green because of small amounts of chromium or iron. Compared
with weight, it is considered the highest value among precious stones,
especially when it is interspersed with veins of other mineral salts. it’s
green color was thought to be a symbol of eternity.
Greek
miners were working the mines in the time of Alexander the Great, and later the
mines yielded their gems to Cleopatra. Remains of extensive workings were
discovered about 1817 by French adventurer F. Cailliaud. Cleopatra Mines, also
known as the ancient emerald mines or Mons Smaragdus (Emerald Mountains), is
one of the oldest mining complexes of the ancient pharaonic world. It is
located Wadi Sikait at a depth of 50 kilometers from the beginning of the
valley of camels (Wadi el Jemal). Most historians think these mines were
already in use during the Ptolemaic period ( 330-30BC ), some even arguing that
the history of the mines may go back as far as the second millennium BC.
The
ancient Pharaonic families, followed by the Romans, and the southern desert
valleys of Aydab, exploited the ability to know that the valleys of the desert
were precious metals, including gold and pyramidal emeralds. When the Pharaonic
commercial convoys passed on the valley of Sikait. the Pharaohs discovered
there, the precious emerald stone, and extracted the metal in large quantities.
Archaeologist
Mohamed Abu El Wafa, director of the Red Sea Antiquities, said that the Romans
used the Sikait Valley to extract the emerald stone after the pharaohs. They
built a small temple in the middle of the mountain called the Roman temple of
Serapis. It is said to be similar to the story of Isis and Osiris. Pharaohs. He
said that he found buildings near the valley of Skate or Temple Sarabis
buildings known as the city of Roman workers who were used by kings to extract
the emerald stone.
While
many of the employees in the tourism field in the Red Sea, starting from Bashar
Abu Talib, the head of tourist guides association in the Red Sea, claims to put
this area and the protector of Wadi Al-Jamal on the map of archaeological
tourism, stressing that there are many who do not know anything about the
Sikait Valley or the Roman temple of Serapis and the city workers Romanians.