the red sea hills are inhabited by the beja people, who practice pastoralism and live mainly near the dry riverbeds, "wādī"s, that flow seasonally into the sea and the nile, where there is limited vegetation. in antiquity, the beja were known as the blemmyes and their presence in the hills is detected archaeologically by the presence of eastern desert ware from the fourth century ad. the material culture of the hills places it firmly within ancient egypt's sphere of influence. extensive mining settlements have been found in the wadi allaqi and the wadi gabgaba. the early blemmyes built platform tumuli (flat-topped burial mounds), and the appearance of cairns to mark burials in the late middle ages may be linked to islamization.