Timnah

Timnah is a toponym that appears in the Hebrew Bible and in modern Israel as a place name. In Hebrew, Timnah (also Timnath) likely means "portion" or "land allotment." In biblical usage, Timnah is referenced as a settlement in the land of the Philistines where Samson went to meet a Philistine woman; Judges 14 recounts his visit to Timnah and his subsequent marriage, a narrative that is part of his early exploits. The exact site of biblical Timnah is uncertain; scholars have proposed several locations in the southern coastal plain near the Philistine border, with some tying it to sites south of the Sorek valley, though no consensus exists. The name also appears in other forms such as Timnath-cerah, a place identified as the birthplace of Samson in Ephraim, illustrating that multiple sites with similar names appear in biblical geography.

In modern Israel, Timnah is most commonly associated with Timna Park, a large geological and archaeological site in the southern Arava valley near Eilat. Timna Park preserves extensive ancient copper-mining and metalworking remains dating primarily to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, including open-cast mines, smelting furnaces, slag dumps, and rock-carved inscriptions. The park also features striking red sandstone formations and is a popular destination for hiking, archaeology, and geology. The shared toponym reflects the broader Hebrew tradition of naming places by land division or allotment and preserves the legacy of biblical geography in modern geography.