CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that the remains of a sandstone structure have been uncovered in the Wadi Al-Nasb area of the South Sinai Peninsula, near the sites of ancient turquoise and copper mines. Mostafa Waziri of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said the building may have been used as a mining administrative center as early as some 4,000 years ago, during the Middle Kingdom period. Situated next to an ancient well, the building had a sandstone floor, two main halls, two rooms, and a staircase leading to the roof, he added. Archaeologist Ayman Ashmawi explained that the building was eventually used as a copper workshop—furnaces, copper ore, copper ingots, crucibles, and slag were recovered from the site’s upper layers. To read about the world's oldest known geological map that was unearthed in Egypt, go to "Mapping the Past: The Goldmine Papyrus."
