The Egyptian Hathor Temple at Serabit el Khadim was in use during the period of the Exodus, ca. 1446 BCE, 1290 BCE, 1175 BCE, 1133 BCE, depending on which scholar one wants to follow.
Could Rephidim, "the mountain of God" (Ex 18:5) be Gebel Serabit el Khadim ? Is the "rock at Horeb" Gebel Ghorabi (Ex 17:6)? Is Mount Sinai Gebel Saniya (Ex 19:2) ?
All three mounts are within view of the Egyptian Temple. Egyptian mining camps exist near Bir Nasib and Gebel Serabit el Khadim. I am unaware of any surveys for Ghoabi and Saniya. (cf. map titled Abu Zenima. Egypt. Southern Sinai. 1:100,000. Sheet 5. Survey of Egypt. 1936).
Hathor the Cow-goddess was honored as the sky that gave birth every morning to the Sun as a "Golden Calf." At sunset the Sun as a great , virile Bull, mounted his mother, Hathor the Sky-Cow-goddess, impregnating her so that he might be born of her the next morning, as the Golden Calf. In the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, Pharoah declared he was "the Golden Calf born of the sky" and pleaded with Horus to let him ride the Solar bark that crossed the heavens each day carrying the Sun-god. Perhaps the bible's motifs of Israel encamped before Mount Sinai and worshipping the Golden Calf recalls events at Serabit el Khadim ? This map is a part of my article titled "The Route of the Exodus."
