Khirbat Faynan

During the Early Bronze Age which was approximately 3,500 BCE, more structured systems of irrigated farming had been developed due to the aridity of the area.

While mining for metals as well as ore processing began to intensify in Khirbat Faynan during the Iron Age, both practices in farming and irrigation as well as smelting had become more sophisticated under the Nabatean kingdom.

The site drastically increased in activity when the Roman Empire had successfully annexed the Nabatean Kingdom in 106 CE.

[5][3] In the Roman and Byzantine periods, it was the center of the area's extensive copper mining complex, the largest in the Southern Levant.

[7][8] These included Silvanus, bishop of Gaza, who was beheaded in 311 AD together with 39 other Egyptian Christians after he proved too old for the work.

The remains consist of an open channel, an aqueduct across Wadi Sheger, and includes a large and sunken reservoir.