Arabian-Nubian Shield
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) is an exposure of Precambrian crystalline rocks on the flanks of the Red Sea. The crystalline rocks are mostly Neoproterozoic in age. Geographically – and from north to south – the ANS includes parts of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Somalia. The ANS in the north is exposed as part of the Sahara Desert and Arabian Desert, and in the south in the Ethiopian Highlands, Asir province of Arabia and Yemen Highlands.
The ANS was the site of some of man's earliest geologic efforts, principally by the ancient Egyptians to extract gold from the rocks of Egypt and NE Sudan. This was the most easily worked of all metals and does not tarnish. All of the gold deposits in Egypt and northern Sudan were found and exploited by Egyptians. The earliest preserved geological map was made in 1150 BCE to show the location of gold deposits in Eastern Egypt; it is known as the Turin papyrus. New gold discoveries have been found in Sudan, Eritrea, and Saudi Arabia.
Pharonic Egyptians also quarried granite near Aswan and floated this down the Nile to be used as facing for the pyramids.
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