Summary: Environmental geographer Glen Fritz gives some of the highlights of his case for locating Mount Sinai at Jabal al Maqla on the Arabian Peninsula. We also have 2 Lecture series by Glen Fritz for sale at our store on his research for the Red Sea Crossing and Mount Sinai’s Location.
In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. – Exodus 19:1 KJV
The Question of Mount Sinai’s Location
While riding a bus in Jerusalem in 1997, I was intrigued by a heated conversation I overheard from the next seat questioning the Sinai Peninsula site for Mount Sinai. My initial reaction was that the Bible had to contain enough geographical evidence to answer that question and I became determined to study the topic. My approach was to start with a clean slate, ignoring all Exodus traditions, focusing instead on biblical data and then testing them against relevant historical and physical geography.
In the 3rd century AD, monastic hermitage communities in the southern Sinai Peninsula birthed the idea that Mount Sinai was in their vicinity. This tradition was aided by Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who founded a chapel there in AD 330. Subsequent growth of religious pilgrimages to Jebel Musa (as it is now called), cemented this tradition in Christendom and Judaism. This early understanding of the Mount Sinai location is mapped in Figure 1 (at top of article). Nonetheless, no archaeological evidence of the Exodus has been found in the Sinai Peninsula despite an intensive 12-year Israeli survey completed in 1982.
The Significance of the Sea Crossing
I quickly realized that the location of Yam Suph was the most crucial piece of the Exodus route puzzle and, fortunately, the Bible does disclose its identity. However, that identity has been overlooked or rejected because it conflicts with the Red or Reed Sea traditions, is too far from Egypt, or because its depths truly require the miraculous. Of the 24 biblical mentions of Yam Suph, seven geographical verses link it with the Gulf of Aqaba. No verses link it to waters adjacent to Egypt. Most significantly, Yam Suph was divinely decreed as the southern boundary of the Promised Land (Ex. 23:31).
Circa 250 BC, the Greek Septuagint Bible scholars identified Yam Suph, the Hebrew name for the Exodus sea, as Erythra Thalassa (“Red Sea”), a broad term for the seas extending south from Egypt. Circa AD 94, the Jewish historian Josephus placed the Exodus sea crossing at the Gulf of Suez, stating that the Hebrews traveled to Baalzephon on the Red Sea in three days (Ant. II.xv.1). Many maps depicted this idea centuries later (e.g., Figure 1).
A review of ancient history and mapping (see Figure 2) demonstrates that the Gulf of Aqaba was not able to be considered as the Exodus sea for most of history because its size and position were poorly understood. For instance, Josephus wrongly placed Solomon’s port near Egypt, “in the Egyptian bay of the Red Sea” (Ant. VIII.vi.4), while 1 Kings 9:26 placed it at Yam Suph near Edom, 150 mi. to the east.
A “Red Sea” crossing at the Gulf of Aqaba would send the Hebrews into the Arabian Peninsula. Near the midpoint of this gulf, the spacious Nuweiba beachhead stands out because it is accessible from within the peninsula and faces traversable seafloor slopes, albeit with depths reaching 2800 feet. Interestingly, the mountainous topography surrounding Nuweiba also matches Josephus’ description of the crossing site perfectly (Ant. II.xv.3).
I estimate that the Hebrews’ hurried march from Egypt to this point covered 272 mi. in about 18 days, averaging 15.5 mi. per day. Figure 3 shows the 9.7-mi. crossing path entering Arabia just north of Midian where Moses was exiled for 40 years.
Moses in Midian
Classical historical records all indicate a Midian location in northwest Saudi Arabia, as shown in Figure 4. There are no records of a Midian in the Sinai Peninsula.
Exodus 3:1 introduces Mount Sinai—
Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the
mountain of God, unto Horeb [Horeb-ward] [ASV].
The rationale for Moses’ trek is explained by vertical transhumance, the seasonal movement of herds from low to high elevations to maximize pasturage. This verse gives a clue about the mountain’s location relative to Midian but does not place it within Midian. It implies that Moses traveled eastward from the coastal lowlands of Midian, perhaps from the coastal Aynunah oasis, toward the Horeb region located behind (Hebrew: akhar) the surrounding mountain wilderness. In some Bible versions “west” is inserted for akhar, which is an unjustified interpretation, not a translation. Aynunah was a notable place to Strabo, Diodorus, Wellsted, and Philby, and favored as the abode of Jethro by explorer Alois Musil (1926, 269).
More Clues to Mount Sinai’s Location
Horeb (meaning dry) was not a mountain peak, but a region housing the wilderness of Sinai, Mount Sinai, Rephidim, and the rock in Horeb. Mount Sinai essentially means “mount of easts,” as derived from sinim (Isaiah 49:12), referring to a people living at the eastern extremity of the world (Gesenius 1979, 584). Sin, the modern Hebrew word for China, has analogous forms in Latin, Greek, and Arabic, with some medieval Arab geographers referring to the Gulf of Aqaba as Bahr as-Sin, the China Sea. Realize that Yam Suph was the most eastern known landmark (per the Ex. 10:19 locust event), but Mount Sinai was even further east in an unknown, unsettled wilderness.
Josephus provided a Mount Sinai clue, saying that it was the tallest peak in the region (Ant. II.xii.1, III.v.1); also, Philo (Moses II.xiv.70). Hence, the focus falls on Jabal al-Lawz (Figure 5), the tallest peak in the NW Saudi Arabia at 8465 feet. The Apostle Paul seems to confirm this location in Galatians 4:25-26 using wordplay based on geographic reality: “…mount Sinai in Arabia…answereth [sustoicheo] to Jerusalem…which is above [ano]…” Sustoicheo implies that Jerusalem and Mount Sinai were in line with each other, i.e., on the same geographical meridian. Ano stipulates that Jerusalem is above, or north of the mountain. Indeed, in modern geography, they lie on the same meridian, 35° 14’east longitude.
Combining these issues points to the eastern base of the Jabal al-Lawz range as being well-suited for the Exodus encampment. In particular, the Jabal al-Maqla part of the range, 5.5 mi. south-southeast of the Jabal al-Lawz peak, gives climbing access, and has evidence of stream flow and archaeological sites.
The Route from the Sea to the Mountain
An Exodus route between the sea and this mountain needs to be traversable for 1.5 million people and involve suitable territory for the intervening encampments of Marah, Elim, Yam Suph, wilderness of Sin, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim. Other route considerations involve time, distance, and topographical factors like barriers, corridors, slopes, and surface conditions.
The east side of Jabal al-Maqla is only 23 mi. east-northeast of Al-Bad’ (Figure 4), but there is no direct path between them. There are only two suitable Exodus paths between the coast and the eastern Lawz range: a northern and a southern, and both are circuitous (Figure 4). One critical determinant of the route taken was the divinely directed encampment at Yam Suph some days after the crossing (Nu. 33:10-11). The seaside town of Makna, 40 mi. south of the crossing, is the only site suitable for this stop due to the coastal mountain chain (see Figure 3).
Meanwhile, in need of water, the Hebrews moved south, downhill through Marah and Elim before reaching the Makna area (Figure 6). To avoid uphill backtracking through the previous dry areas, they were seemingly led to the mountain via the southern route, which would also afford the space and distance needed to include the wilderness of Sin, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim encampments.
The seaside visit likely gave the Hebrews a chance to harvest Egyptian armaments and goods attached to wreckage and bloated bodies, which had drifted south favored by the prevailing north wind. Josephus cited the force of the sea and the winds in this event and declared it to be Divine Providence (Ant. II.xvi.6). Although he noted that the Hebrews left Egypt unarmed (Ant. II.xv.3), they were soon able to discomfit ”…Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword” in Rephidim (Ex. 17:3).
The encampment at Yam Suph creates difficulties for the “split rock” formation (mapped in Figure 6), popularly deemed to be the “rock in Horeb” in Rephidim. This proposal is awkward because it requires the Hebrews to backtrack 25 miles north through Al-Bad’ and Wadi al-Ifal, and it does not leave space for the listed camps between Elim and Rephidim: the wilderness of Sin, Dophkah, and Alush. Consider that 1.5 million people, strung out at 60,000 per mi., could occupy this entire 25-mi. path. In addition, they had “…flocks and herds and even very much cattle” (Ex. 12:38).
The idyllic Wadi Tayyib al-Ism oasis (Figure 7), lying in a canyon 14 miles north of Makna, has been touted as the Elim with 70 palms and 12 springs (Ex. 15:27). However, this idea is untenable because it is too small, only 56 acres (0.1 sq. mi.), and it lacks adequate ingress and egress routes. Essentially, it is a dead end, its western outlet to the sea being a narrow, tortuous, 3-mile-long gorge, with no beachhead. The 12 wells of this oasis have been cited as Exodus evidence, but the biblical numbers 70 and 12 may have been symbolic, intended to indicate a plethora of springs and trees, more than are in this oasis.
The wilderness of Sin, where the manna began, was reached one month after leaving Egypt (Ex. 16:1). I estimate 12 days’ travel between the sea crossing and this wilderness, a distance of 76 mi. for those who did not visit Yam Suph, and 104 for those who did. The average daily paces of 6.5 and 9 mi. were much slower than the 15.5 mi. average estimated for the journey to the sea. The Hebrews arrived in the wilderness of Sinai one month later (Ex. 19:1) meaning that the 157 mi. journey between the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of Sinai averaged 5.5 mi. per day. Figure 8 summarizes this route.
Archaeological Finds at the Mountain
Note that this determination for Mount Sinai is geographical, not archaeological. Currently, there is no clear archaeological evidence for the Exodus route or Mount Sinai. Despite being sensationalized, the bovine petroglyphs, marble pillars, and “blackened peak” at Jabal al-Maqla provide no Exodus evidence. Nonetheless, the “altar” structure, inadequately excavated by the Saudis 30 years ago, is still a dilemma. The remains of large seep wells at the mountain base are curious because they suggest an engineered water system that would exceed the needs of ancient native peoples. The apparent Bronze Age cemetery 5 mi. north of Jabal al-Maqla may hold Exodus clues, but it has yet to be excavated.
Conclusion
The immense scale of the Exodus, the multitude, the herds, the provisions, and the distances involved were much greater than are generally appreciated and–
If during the course of eighteen centuries, the interpreters have misunderstood and mistranslated the geographical notions contained in Holy Scripture, the error is certainly not due to the sacred history, but to those who, without the knowledge of the history and geography of ancient times, have attempted the task of reconstructing the Exodus of the Hebrews, at any cost, on the level of their own imperfect comprehension. – Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1883, 46)
Keep Thinking!
References:
- Gesenius, William. 1979. Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, trans. Samuel P. Tregelles. Grand
- Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
- Musil, Alois. 1926. The Northern Hijaz: A Topical Itinerary. American Geographical Society Oriental
- Explorations and Studies No. 1, J.K. Wright, ed. New York.
- Thayer, Alexander Wheelock. 1883. The Hebrews and the Red Sea. Andover: Warren F. Draper
TOP PHOTO: Figure 1. Carte du Voyage des Israelites. An 18th-century map showing the modern Gulf of Suez as Golfe Heroopolite and Mer Rouge (French: Red Sea). The Exodus route crosses this sea to “Mont Sinai” in the “Desert de Sinai.” The Golfe Elanitique is a distorted representation of the modern Gulf of Aqaba. (Calmet Augustine 1725, Moldovan Collection)
