The Sinai Peninsula has been sought after and fought over for thousands of years. Newly discovered Egyptian rock paintings from around 5,000 years ago in the southwest of Sinai provide impressive evidence of this. They depict the scene of a local man being violently subjugated by an Egyptian ruler or god with arms raised in triumph. This demonstrates the ancient Egyptians’ claim to power over this region rich in mineral resources.
The Sinai Peninsula lies between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba, forming a bridge between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Although covered by desert and sparsely populated, Sinai has been fought over for thousands of years. The rulers of ancient Egypt in particular repeatedly tried to conquer Sinai. The peninsula was home to rich mineral resources, including copper, turquoise and malachite.
More than 5,000 years ago, Egyptian troops repeatedly advanced on Sinai and colonized it. “The motivation of the ancient Egyptian expeditions to the southwest of Sinai was therefore not just an abstract expansion of their territory,” explain Mustafa Nour El-Din from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Ludwig Morenz from the University of Bonn. Relics of old mines and numerous rock paintings and inscriptions in three valleys in the southwest of the Sinai Peninsula testify to the early presence of the Egyptians: Wadi Ameyra, Wadi Humur and Wadi Maghara. The royal names appearing in the rock carvings there range from rulers of predynastic Egypt to kings of the 1st Dynasty to pharaohs of the New Kingdom.
Scene of subjugation
Morenz and El-Din have now discovered another impressive testimony to the Egyptian presence and claims to power in the Sinai in Wadi Khamila. This valley is located around 35 kilometers from the Red Sea and around seven kilometers southeast of the Hathor Temple of Serabit el-Khadim, one of the most important ancient Egyptian centers in Sinai. The archaeologists discovered several inscriptions and figures of Egyptian origin on the rock walls of Wadi Khamila. “The Wadi Khamila was previously only known to researchers in connection with Nabataean inscriptions that were around 3,000 years younger,” says Morenz. In contrast, the newly discovered rock inscriptions and rock paintings date from 5,000 years ago and thus from the Predynastic or Early Dynastic era of Egypt.
What is special about the newly discovered rock paintings are their motifs: One of the rock paintings shows a man in a loincloth striding forward with his arms raised triumphantly. “By raising his arms, he signals victory and dominance,” explain Morenz and El-Din. A boat can be seen behind this figure – a motif that was often used in the context of a ruler in depictions of this period. “The boat symbolizes the conquest of a territory on behalf of the Egyptian ruler,” said the archaeologists. The crucial thing about this scene, however, is a second character. “This man is kneeling in front of the person with his arms raised in triumph. His arms are tied behind his back and an arrow is sticking out of his chest,” the researchers describe the image. At that time, the residents of the Sinai Peninsula had no writing, no state organization and were clearly inferior to the Egyptians militarily. According to the researchers, this depiction clearly conveys the violent subjugation of the local population.
God as the patron saint of territorial power claims
The motif could also be one of the oldest known killing scenes with an accompanying inscription. There are hieroglyph-like symbols carved into the rock directly above this scene. They provide further information. “The interpretation of this inscription is difficult, but the first character could be understood as a crude but relatively clear symbol for the god Min,” the archaeologists report. In early Egypt, this god was considered a protective god when conquering new territories outside the Nile Valley. “He was therefore also the divine patron for the Egyptians’ raw material expeditions to the Sinai,” say Morenz and El-Din.
The inscription from Wadi Khamila also demonstrates a religiously legitimate Egyptian claim to Sinai and its mineral resources. “The Min sign gives the visual representation of Egyptian dominance a religious overtone and at the same time underlines Egypt’s cultural identity even in this peripheral area of the empire,” the researchers write. There are also references to the god Min in one of the previously known sites of ancient Egyptian rock paintings in the Sinai, the Wadi Ameyra. “Together with the rock painting that has now been discovered in the Wadi Khamila, this suggests a kind of colonial network of the Egyptians,” says Morenz. The analysis of the newly discovered rock paintings and inscriptions is still in its early stages. The archaeologists are already planning to explore the area further and look for more graffiti from this period.
Source: University of Bonn; Specialist article: Leaves of Abraham 25, 2025