Wadi Hammamat, dried out in the ancient riverbed, a tributary of the Nile, - the shortest route connecting the district of Thebes to the Red sea. In the heyday of Ancient Egypt through this gorge the caravans of gold, copper, tin and stone quarried in the vicinity of Wadi Hammamat.

This place is the greatest in all Egypt number of rock inscriptions and drawings. They were made by the participants of the expeditions who stayed in the valley on the way to the Red sea, the workers working in the Wadi Hammamat dark greenish stone breccia or gold in the next valley Wadi Fawakhir. Just about 2300 valley inscriptions and drawings. Almost all the inscriptions are located on the southern slope of the Wadi Hammamat.

One of the earliest inscriptions in the Wadi Hammamat tells about the expedition, organized by the Pharaoh of Penalty 1 (2321-2287 BC) to extract valuable stone for decoration of his pyramid at Saqqara. The inscription lists the names of the architect, foremen, sculptors, scribes, treasurers and captains of the ships involved in the expedition.