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The Sinai
AWAY AWAY
Nuwamis |
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Off the road from Nuweiba to St Katherine, a group of round buildings on top of a basalt-sandstone plateau can be found. These buildings are called Nuwamis (=mosquito's), the name given because according to biblical legend the nuwamis were built by the hebrews for protection against a large plague of mosquito's. In fact the Nuwamis were built with the purpose of tombs during the 1st Timna period. The Timna were a semi nomadic people whose civilization flourished between 3800 and 2650 BC. Later the tombs might have been used by other tribes, like the Nabatean, for the storage of grains and dates. |
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The nuwamis are round buildings built of carefully laid, unworked stone slabs with a low, small, square entrance facing the west. Exceptional is the stratification of a double wall that made it possible to lay a flat, round stone roof from the sides to the middle. Burial articles (ornaments like pearls and bracelets, and tools like needles and flints) have been found inside the nuwamis. After burial the tombs were filled with sand and the roof closed with stone slabs. |
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For more information contact us at: katherine@awayaway-sinai.net or call 00 20 122270443 |