Place · desert road and rock-inscription site · in 1 mystery

Wadi el-Hol, Qena bend

desert pass on the Farshut road

Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet 2 events 25.9500° N, 32.4200° E

Wadi el-Hol, Qena bend is a desert road and rock-inscription site in the record of Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet, placed to about 10 km.

Two events on the site happened here, between 1849 and 1999: Two short alphabetic texts are cut beside Middle Kingdom Egyptian inscriptions on the Farshut desert road, and later John and Deborah Darnell announce the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions found in 1993; the full edition follows in 2005.

Surveyed by the Theban Desert Road Survey (Yale) from 1993; the Egyptian inscriptions are published in OIP 119 and the alphabetic ones in AASOR 59.

One artifact in the record is tied to it, including The two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions.

Written from the site's records. Improve it

Placed from Wikipedia article coordinates for the Wadi el-Hol inscriptions (25.95 N, 32.42 E); the exact rock face is not published to coordinate precision · Placed to about 10 kmOpen the mystery's map

In the mysteries

Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet

desert pass on the Farshut road · 2 events

The mystery

How many letters did the earliest alphabet have, and which Egyptian signs are their prototypes?Open: 2 answers, none ahead

What do the Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol inscriptions say?Open: 4 answers, none ahead

When were the Serabit el-Khadim inscriptions written: in the Middle Kingdom, about 1850 BC, or in the New Kingdom?Open: 4 answers, none ahead

What do the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions say, and in which direction do they read?No evidence yet: No evidence yet

What happened here 2

-1849Two short alphabetic texts are cut beside Middle Kingdom Egyptian inscriptions on the Farshut desert road

1999John and Deborah Darnell announce the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions found in 1993; the full edition follows in 2005

with John Coleman Darnell

Nearby within 500 km

Medinet Habu, mortuary temple of Ramesses III, Thebes

temple

31 km SE

Hatnub quarry

quarry

225 km NW

Wadi al-Jarf

harbour site

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Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai

mining site and temple

358 km N

Karanog, Lower Nubia

archaeological site (now under Lake Nasser)

361 km S

Tura quarries

quarry

456 km N

People 1

John Coleman Darnell

Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet

Artifacts 1

The two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions

Rock inscriptions

ART

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). Wadi el-Hol, Qena bend [Place PLC0DEDPX96CH7T]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/PLC0DEDPX96CH7T

@misc{mysteriesdept_plc0dedpx96ch7t,
  title     = {Wadi el-Hol, Qena bend},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Place, catalog key PLC0DEDPX96CH7T},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/PLC0DEDPX96CH7T}
}