Wadi Feynan

[5] Copper production became widespread during the period when Wadi Faynan was part of the Kingdom of Edom at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE.

Presumably, the aggressive campaigns of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I played an important role in the development of technology: in the second half of the 10th century BCE there was a standardization of the production process over a large area, including the Wadi Faynan and Timna Valley deposits, and a sharp decrease in the copper content in the slag, indicating more efficient ore processing.

The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) opened the first of its eco hotels, the Feynan Ecolodge, there in 2005.

Levy and Najjar have argued that Iron Age sites in the region relate to the earliest phases of the Biblical kingdom of Edom.

These scholars, along with Erez Ben-Yosef, also argue that Pharaoh Shoshenk I of Egypt (the Biblical "Shishak"), who attacked Jerusalem in the 10th century BC, encouraged the trade and production of copper instead of destroying the region.