The worship at Timna was a specialized "cultic" practice connected to Hathor's role as a deity associated with mining, emphasizing her protective and sustaining aspects for those working in harsh conditions. The relatively small shrine was most likely, (judging from the number of representations of the deity, dedicated to the Egyptian Goddess Hathor, dating back to the 19th-20th Dynasties. Among the large number of items discovered at the shrine, was a bronze snake, possibly alluding to the site's use by the Midianites. This suggests a possible connection not only of the Midianite cult of the copper snake, found in this shrine, with the Nehushtan of the Exodus, but also with the original Mosaic tent-shrine of Israel's desert wanderings, the 'tent of meeting', the Tabernacle.

A large number of mazzeboth or massebah (sacred pillar or standing stone), were also discovered inside and around the shrine.

Despite being so-called "Solomon's Mines", the mines were not active during the period of Israelite monarchy.

circa 1390 BCE

Egyptiand Period (circa 1390-1200 BCE)
The original or first Late Bronze Age cultic-shrine seems to have been built during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I at the end of the 13th century BCE (circa 1294 or 1290 to 1279 BCE), for the Egyptian miners working in the area.

Although the shrine was of simple construction, an earthquake damage during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BCE caused the temple to be rebuilt, with a larger courtyard and more elaborate walls and floor. The Hathor shrine built durin gthe

Midianite Period (circa 1180-1100 BCE)
When the Egyptians left the area in the middle of the 12th century BCE, the Midianites continued using the temple. They seem to have erased the evidence of the Egyptian cult, effaced the images of Hathor and the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and built a row of stelae and a bench of offerings on both sides of the entrance. They turned the temple into a tented desert shrine (illustration) and filled it with Midianite pottery and metal jewelry. There was also a bronze serpent found near the sanctuary.

circa 1279-1213 BCE

Egyptian-Midianite Shrine
The shrine constructed in its final phase of existence, during the reign of Rameses II housed an open courtyard with a cella (illustration), an area cut into the rock to presumably house a statue of the deity. The dimensions of the rebuilt Egyptian period shrine were 15 by 15 meters. It was faced with white sandstone that was found only at the mining site, situated several kilometers away from the site of minning activity. Near the shrine, a rock carving of Ramses III with goddess Hathor (inspect) is located at the top of a flight of step carved into the rock-face.

circa 1279-1213 BCE

Ramesses III and Hathor Inscription
Royal Egyptian rock engraving from the 12th century BCE in which Rameses III (left) hands an offering the goddess Hathor (right). The goddess holds an Ankh - a symbol of fertility and life. At the bottom of the scene is a hieroglyphic inscription with the name and titles of the leader of the Egyptian expedition who left the engraving behind, "The royal butler the justified Ramessempre".

circa 1390 BCE

A life-size replica of the biblical tabernacle, a tent that God is said to have instructed Moses to build in order to have a transportable sanctuary during the Exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land, was constructed in recent years in the park. It does not use the materials described in the Bible. The tented shrine (illustration) built by the Egyptians might have been a predecessor of the biblical tabernacle in form.

circa 1390 BCE

Funerary Mask of Goddess Hathor
This faience mask, discovered at the Temple of Hathor near the copper mines of Timna in the eastern Sinai Desert (a relatively large desert south of the Land of Israel/Palestine), was made to be a representation of the goddess. The eyes are characteristically Egyptian, and clearly were colored. It was one of more than 11,000 small objects discovered to have been left at the shrine as a votive offering to the goddess.