Is it legal to collect at Timna Park: ancient copper mines and Eilat stone?

Restricted. Nature reserve and antiquities area, entrance fee: collecting stones or ore is not permitted; the sanctioned take-home is the colored-sand bottle activity, and Eilat stone jewelry is sold in park and Eilat shops

What can you find at Timna Park: ancient copper mines and Eilat stone?

eyes-only: green copper-stained sandstone, ancient smelting camps, Chalcolithic mine shafts, Solomon's Pillars; buy Eilat stone jewelry legally in shops

Explore / Asia / More of Asia

Middle East, Southern District

Timna Park

Ancient copper mines and Eilat stone

Mineral locality Documented siteRestricted

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What you could find

Reported finds from this ground.

Nails and fittings

Flint and stone tools

Also reported: ancient smelting camps, Solomon's Pillars; buy Eilat stone jewelry legally in shops.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: North Lincolnshire Museum, Martin Foreman, (CC BY 2.0), James St. John (CC BY 2.0).

Why this spot

Rockhounding locality: copper mined here since the 6th-5th millennium BCE (the 'King Solomon's mines' district); malachite-chrysocolla Eilat stone is Israel's national stone, and the valley is now a nature reserve park

Wikipedia documents the mining archaeology and the 2002 reserve declaration ending all mining; park site confirms current visitor operation