Editing Eilat (section)

===Early history===
[[Archaeology| Archaeological excavations]] uncovered impressive prehistoric ([[Timeline of the Palestine region#Neolithic |Neolithic]]) tombs dating to the [[7th millennium BC]] at the western edge of Eilat, while nearby copper workings and mining operations at [[Timna Valley Park|Timna Valley]] are one of the oldest on earth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chalcolithic, 5th Millennium BC, Copper Smelting at Timna |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeo-metallurgical-studies/sites/archaeo-metallurgical-studies/files/iams_20_1998_rothenberg_merkel.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303205213/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeo-metallurgical-studies/sites/archaeo-metallurgical-studies/files/iams_20_1998_rothenberg_merkel.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2021}}</ref>

An Islamic community of 250–400 residents flourished for one or two generations in the area during the [[History of Israel#Umayyad period|Umayyad period]].<ref name=YR>{{cite journal |author=Yehudah Rapuano |title=An Early Islamic Settlement and a Possible Open-Air Mosque at Eilat |journal=[['Atiqot]] |year=2013 |volume=75 |pages=129–165}}</ref> It dealt in agriculture, copper mining and [[smelting]], as well as trading with pilgrims by taking advantage of the adjacent ''[[Darb el-Hajj]]'' ('Way of the [[Hajj]]') route in the 8th century CE.<ref name=YR/> There was some sporadic reuse of the abandoned site by pastoralists during the 9th.<ref name=YR/> It was one of six very similar contemporary villages discovered in close vicinity, two along the northbound leg of the ''Darb'', and three to the southwest, along the coastal road, all of them depending on the nearby port of [[Aqaba#History|Ayla]] and the Hajj road.<ref name=YR/> Its remains were found and excavated in 1989, between the industrial zone at the northern edge of Eilat and nearby [[Kibbutz]] [[Eilot]].<ref name=YR/>