Midianite Temple Pavilion
In the 14th century BCE, the Egyptian pharaohs dispatched mining expeditions to Timna. Alongside expert metalsmiths from the Land of Midian, they extracted copper at Timna until the early 12th century BCE. This pavilion houses a Midianite temple model. Of special interest is the copper snake with gilded head found in the shrine, perhaps pointing to the biblical Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4) ("a brazen thing").
Read more about this topic: Eretz Israel Museum
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“But what we gain’d in Skill we lost in Strength.
Our Builders were with Want of Genius curst;
The second Temple was not like the first;
Till you, the best Vitruvius, come at length,
Our Beauties equal, but excel our Strength.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)