Wadi Safafir Pages

The copper smelting activity in and around Wadi Safafir was first reported by Rob Western in The Bulletin and it took several years for the Al Ain chapter to find the site. Unfortunately, many of the features reported by Rob are gone, lost to bulldozers who cleared the area for farming.

However, during several trips to the area in the autumn of 2005, we did find evidence of copper smelting, locating several fields of slag and abandoned mountain communities. There are a number of pages reporting these activities including:

Slag heaps
Near the mine reported by Rob Western we found this area featuring graves and several slag heaps
Terrace development
Upstream in Wadi Safafir from the mine reported by Rob Western we found this set of terraces and Islamic graves
Farm site
Along one of the side wadis we found this farm site with elaborate terraces and some very well built houses
Curved wall and slag heap
Across a side wadi from the terraces noted above, we spotted this curved wall and a large collection of slag.
Small community
Evidence of abandoned communities are around almost every bend in this area, not far from Wadi Qawr, one of the most interesting sites for archaeology in the UAE