The Route of the Exodus: Proposals for Yam Suph (Lake Timsah), Etham/Shur (Tumilat/Timsah/Abu Suwayr), Marah/LXX: Merrah (Bir el Murr), Elim (Ayun Musa's 12 springs) Wilderness of Sin/LXX: Sina (El Sanawi/Hosan abu Zenna), Dophka (Ras Umm Qatafa/Qattar Dafari), Alush (Bir El-Guweisa), Rephidim (Serabit el Khadim), Horeb/Choreb (Gebel Ghorabi/Gharabi), Mount Sinai (Gebel Saniya), Paran (Feiran Oasis).
For Christians visiting this website my most important article is: The Reception of God's Holy Spirit: How the Hebrew Prophets _contradict_ Christianity's Teachings. Please click here.
Revisions and Updates :08 February 2004 through 26 March 2004
and in addition an "overview map" is available showing the route from Goshen in Egypt to Mount Nebo in Transjordan please click on the following url: Route of the Exodus Map Sites.
For a selection of "Route of the Exodus Maps" by other scholars like Yohanan Aharoni, William H. Stiebing Jr., Magnus Magnusson, Ian Wilson, Menashe Har-el, etc. please click here.
Goshen (Faqus near Qantir and Tell ed-Daba/Avaris?)
Hoffmeier noted that "Goshen" and "the Land of Ramesses" appears to be interchangeable terms for a single location. I note that most scholars understand Ramesses to be at Qantir and this is near Faqus. Could Faqus preserve an ancient Egyptian Pa-Qus/Pi-Qus/Per-Qus and be Goshen?
Hoffmeier :
"The use of Rameses in Genesis 47:11 instead of Goshen demonstrates that the two were understood interchangeably, and Rameses points to the 19th and 20th Dynasty as the period when these narratives were written or edited
(James K. Hoffmeier. Israel In Egypt, The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. 1996. Oxford University Press. New York).
Succoth (Egyptian Tjeku?):
In earlier articles posted at this website I noted that scholars were in agreement that Egyptian Tjeku was Hebrew Succoth, and that it lie somewhere in Wadi Tumilat. The papyrus Anastasi VI (13th century B.C.) stated that bedouins with cattle were being allowed to pass the fortress of Merneptah to obtain water at birkhet pr-itm ("the pools of Pr-Tum"). Excavations in Wadi Tumilat by the Canadians in the late 1980s revealed that ONLY Tell er Retabeh possessed Ramesside pottery debris. Tell el Maskhutah (east of Retabeh) did NOT possess Ramesside pottery debris, it had Hyksos (16th century B.C.), an occupation gap, Saitic (ca. after 610 B.C.), Persian, Ptolemaic and Roman. I have accordingly identified Succoth as a region embracing the great overflow lake west of Retabeh and the latter site as being Merneptah's fortress, guarding the approach to this "birkhet" or freshwater lake. I also have proposed that the east end of Wadi Tumilat is Etham of the Exodus narratives, that is to say, that portion of the wadi east of Merneptah's fortress at Retabeh. Papyrus Anastasi VI stated that Merneptah's fortress and birkhet pr-itm were IN TJEKU, so I understand that the west end of the wadi is the region of Succoth.
Hoffmeier on Succoth/Tjeku :
"...Redford and Goedicke have suggested that 'the fortress (p3 htm) of Merneptah-hetep-hir-maat which is [in] Tjeku' was located at Tell el-Retabeh, fourteen kilometers west of Maskhuta."
(p. 181. James K. Hoffmeier. Israel In Egypt, The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. 1996. Oxford University Press. New York))
"Hans Goedicke, who directed excavations at Tell el-Retabeh in the late 1970s, has concluded that it was an important defensive site during Ramesses II's reign for the protection of Egypt's borders. Because of Holladay's findings at Tell el-Maskhuta [no Ramesside pottery debris found at the latter site] and his work at Tell el-Retabeh, Goedicke is convinced that "There was only one major settlement in the eastern Wadi Tumilat during the New Kingdom, and that has to be equated with Tell el-Rataba." (p. 120. Hoffmeier)
Hoffmeier suggests that Papyrus Anastasi 6 indicates that Tjeku was a location possessing horses and possibly chariots, which might have been used in pursuit of Israel at Pi-ha-Hiroth :
"Here Tjeku is described as a place where horses and their grooms were stationed, and the city determinative is written with Tjeku, suggesting a particular location, not a general region, was intended. Kitchen suggests that the 'three waters of Pharaoh' may be one and the same as the 'pools (brkt) of Pithom of Merneptah which is [in] Tjeku' of Papyrus Anastasi 6 (54-61)...It is from such a fortress that we might expect the Egyptian chariotry, which would be stationed to defend Egypt, to have been dispatched in pursuit of the Israelites (Exod 14:6-8).
Further support for Tjeku being a militarized zone is found in military titles associated with officers assigned to defend that area. The earliest reference to Tjeku is found in the 18th Dynasty. This text from Sinai is dated the 7th year of Thutmose IV (ca. 1393 BC). It names one Amenemhet who was 'troop commander (hry pdt) of Tjeku." (p. 180. Hoffmeier)
Etham (Atuma? Pr-itm?)
Naville (1885) proposed that the nomads mentioned in Papyrus Anastai VI were of the "land of Atuma" NOT "the land of Edom" as favored in most translations, and that Atuma was the lands east of and adjacent to Lake Timsah. More recently, two Egyptologists, K. A. Kitchner (2003) and James K. Hoffmeier (1996) have also suggested Etham is somewhere near the east end of Wadi Tumilat and that the crossing of the Red Sea (Yam Suph, "Sea of Reeds") is perhaps Lake Timsah.
Hoffmeier:
"...Manfred Gorg has suggested that Etham is shortened writing for the Egyptian p(r) itm, that is, Pithom (Ex 1:11), but with the initial element pi omitted as in the case of (Pi) Raamses in the Pentateuch. He follows P. Weimer in believing that a late redactor is responsible for the topnymy in the Pentateuch. It will be recalled that Redford too thought that the absence of pi in the name of Raamses (Ex 1:11,12:37; Nu 33:3, 5) was indicative of the lateness of the tradition."
(p. 182. Hoffmeier)
Hoffmeier :
"Given the specificity of Etham's location "on the edge of the wilderness," it appears that Etham, whatever the feature was, was situated at the eastern end of the Wadi Tumilat, east of Tell el-Maskhutah, perhaps in the Lake Timsah region."
(p. 182. James K. Hoffmeier. Israel in Egypt, the Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. 1996. Oxford University Press. New York)
Pi-ha-Hiroth (mouth of the canal? mouth of the gorges?):
Pi-ha-hiroth, if meaning "mouth of the canal," is for Kitchen and Hoffmeir, the canal between Lake Timsah and Lake Ballah, either lake being the location for Pihahiroth. If James Breasted, another Egyptologist (1912:188) is correct about a Red Sea canal since Dynasty 12, from the Nile via wadi Tumilat, Timsah and two Bitter Lakes, emptying near Clysma/Suez, then just perhaps Pihahiroth is the mouth of this canal as it exits Wadi Tumilat and joins Lake Timsah? The Akkadian term kharru means "an irrigation channel or canal," perhaps such an irrigation channel existed in Wadi Tumilat, utilizing Lake Timsah as an overflow catchment from the Nile when it floods?
The late French Egyptologist and archaeologist Pierre Montet noted several stelae in Wadi Tumilat erected by Ramesses II, which suggested for him a canal existed in the 19th Dynasty- could this be the biblical Pi-ha-Hiroth?
"...Pierre Montet believed that a series of Ramesses II stelae found along the Wadi Tumilat marked the line of a canal that existed in the 19th Dynasty. Traces of at least two defunct canals through the Wadi Tumilat have been identified, and one still flows through it (fig. 21). Dating these waterways is most problematic, but it is clear that the Wadi Tumilat has enjoyed a long history of canal activity..."
(p. 165. Hoffmeier (on p. 72), citing: Geographie L'Egypte Ancienne. Vol. I. Paris: Imprimie Nationale. 1957. pp. 218-219)
Hoffmeier noted that several scholars of the Classical period understood a canal existed in Wadi Tumilat from Middle kingdom times and the reign of Sesostris (Senusret III, ca. 1878-1841 B.C.?). Did the canal come to be used later for irrigation purposes whence the Akkadian "kharru"?
Hoffmeier:
"Another possible reason for connecting the canal with the 12th Dynasty is references in Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny to Sesostris digging a canal. In his Meterologica (1, 14.22-29), Aristotle offers the following tradition regarding the Red Sea Canal or Canal of the Pharaohs, as it has been called: "One of the kings tried to dig a canal to it...Sesostris is said to be the first of the ancient kings to have attempted the work...Strao's report is similar" "The canal was first cut by Sesostris before the Trojan War -though some say the son of Psammitichus [i.e., Necho II], who only began the work and then died- and later by Darius the first, who succeeded to the next work done upon it" (Geography 17.1,24)." (p. 169. Hoffmeier)
Pi-ha-Hiroth (Ex 14:2, 9; Nu 33:7) also appears as Ha-Hiroth (Nu 33:8 ). Scholars understand pi to mean "mouth", ha to mean "of the" and Hiroth to mean "kharru." A kharru is an irrigation canal or channel. The name appears most often in Mesopotamian contexts, as this was a land of irrigation canals or channels. Scholars, adopting this understanding accordingly propose that Israel was encamped near the mouth of a canal or channel that emptied into Yam Suph.
There remain two "other proposals" that are not encountered very often today on the meaning and location of the word Pi-ha-Hiroth, one was made by the Egyptologist Edouard Naville back in 1885.
He excavated Tell el Maskhutah in the 1880's and found a great stone stela from the reign of the Greek Ptolemaic Pharaoh, Ptolemy II, which mentioned donations to Egyptian temples. Naville understood that Ptolemy II had made a donation to a temple-estate located in or near Maskhutah called Pikerehet, and that this might be Pi-ha-hiroth of the Exodus narratives. He located this site just east of Tell el Maskhutah and south of Lake Timsah near the Serapeum on his map.
Naville on Pikeret:
"The living Horus, the victorious child, the Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt...Ptolemy, living like Ra eternally; Tum the great living god of Succoth...he loves the gods and goddesses of the Heroopolitan nome...under the reign of his divine majesty; when it was reported to him that the abode had been finished for his father Tum, the great god of Succoth; the third day of the month of Athyr, his majesty himself went to Heroopolis, in the presence of his father Tum. Lower Egypt was in rejoicing...the festival of his birth. When his majesty proceeded to the temple of Pikerehet, he dedicated this temple to his father Tum, the great living god of Succoth, in the festival of the god..." (p. 17. Edouard Naville. The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus. 1885. London. Egypt Exploration Fund)
"The account of all the taxes which his majesty has given as revenues to the two divisions of Egypt, on the income of each year...of gold. His majesty gave 150,000 argentei. The account of all the taxes which his majesty has given as revenues to Pikerehet, taxes due by the houses of the city and taxes due by the inhabitants, as income of each year 950 argentei...These revenues which have been given to his father Tum and to the gods of Egypt, have been inscribed on this tablet before his father Tum the great living god of Succoth, on the day of the coronation of the king, when he dedicated the temple which is there; this day has become the day of the festival of the city." (p.19. Naville)
Naville also found a Latin inscription at Maskhutah: "...Polis Ero Castra," the city-fortress/camp of Ero, which suggested for him that Maskhutah was the site of Hellenistic and Roman Heroopolis, the city of Hero.
Naville :
"Polis is quite distinct, as well as the following words ERO CASTRA, as to which there is no possible doubt. We have here therefore the ERO of the Itinerary of antoninus, the Greek `Hero or Heroonpolis which we know from the passage of Stephanus Byzantinus quoted before. The other inscription is more important, because it bears a date. It must be referred to 306 or 307 A.D. It reads thus:
"Dominis nostris victoribus, Maximiano et Severo imperatoribus, et Maximino et Constantino nobilissimis Caesaribus, ab Ero in Clusma, M.VIIII. (followed by the Greek sign _Theta_ meaning nine)"
Which Naville translates as:
"Under our victorious lords, the emperors Maximianus and Severus, and the most illustrious Caesars Maximinus and Constantine, from Ero to Clusma thare are nine miles.--nine."
Naville notes that Clysma (Clusma) is 68 Roman Miles from Ero according to an ancient itinerary, which concerns him as he understands from the inscription found at Maskhutah, that the distance is 9 miles from Ero to Clusma:
"Thus, if we consult this inscription, the reading of which is absolutely certain, there are only nine miles from Ero to Clusma. Turning to the Itinerary of Antonius we read that there are eighteen miles from Ero to Serapiu, and fifty from Serapiu to Clusma, which makes a sum of sixty-eight. We are therefore compelled to admit that one of the documents is wrong, either the Itinerary or the milestone..."
I believe BOTH the Itinerary and the inscription are CORRECT.
Clysma is a Greek word meaning "flood or surging inundation" (cf. Brad Sparks' comment in his article titled Problems with Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia. <http://www.ldolphin.org/sinai.html>).
Could it be that that the inscription is saying in effect that 9 Roman miles from Tell el Maskhutah/ERO is the "flood or surging inundation" of Lake Timsah? While the Itinerary of Antonius is speaking of "flood or surging inundation" (Clysma) at the port of Suez, Roman Clysma (today's Qom Qulzoum in Arabic). In 1910 the Suez Port authority recorded tidal heights of up to 10 feet, which would certainly qualify for the descriptor clysma, meaning "surging inundation or flood."
If one looks at a map, Tell el Maskutah is indeed "approximately" 9 miles west of Lake Timsah. What would cause Lake Timsah to periodically "flood or surge, inundating" nearby land? Perhaps the canal from the Nile to Lake Timsah, caused the Lake to "flood" in conjunction with the annual flooding of the Nile?
The Gulf of Suez was called by Greeks and Romans kolpos Heroon, Heroopolites, or Sinus Heroopoliticus after the city of Hero and the nome, "Nomo Heroopolites" (cf. p. 317. Heroopolis or Hero." William Smith. A Classical Dictionary of Biography, Mythology, and Geography. 1875. London. John Murray)
I understand that Ptolemy II's Pikerehet may have eventually lost its Pi- and "k" and "t" and became Hero/Ero. The Ptolemies tended to make a show of respecting ancient Egyptian religious concepts. The word Pikerehet then might be an ancient Egyptian place-name, preserved in the temple erected by Ptolemy II. I note that biblical Rameses appears in Ramesside documents as Pi-Ramesses or Pr-Ramesses, "House or estate of Ramesses." Biblical Pithom is understood to be derived from Egyptian Pi-Tum, "estate/house of Tum." So perhaps Pi-ha-Hiroth was a Semtic rendering of Pikeheret, "the house/estate of Keheret"? Sixteenth century B.C. Hyksos era graves have been found in the vicinity of Tell el Maskhutah, which suggests there were sources of water here for flocks. Was there a settlement here called Pikerehet in the 16th century B.C.?
The stela suggests that the temple-estate of Pikerehet is "in" or "near" Tell el Maskhutah, as it was found _IN_ that site by Naville.
Did the Hebrews err in rendering Egyptian Pi "estate of" into "mouth"? Or did the Egyptians adopt the Semitic Pi-ha-hiroth/kharru, transforming it into Pikerehet (It is known that Egypt did adopt several Asiatic loanwords into its vocabulary)? That is to say, that as Asiatics since Hyksos times had settled in this area with their flocks, they may have called this area Pi-ha-Hiroth (German: Pihachiroth), and when the Egyptians "moved" into this region in Ramesside (?) or later Saitic times they took the Semitic descriptor name and transformed it into Pikerehet?
Alternately, there exists another proposal, could Wadi Tumilat have been conceived of by Asiatics entering this great valley, "or GORGE," from Canaan, as like a great channel or canal (kharru) carved/bored out of the earth's surface by a god, and thus the eastern entrance to this Kharru-like valley came to be called the "Mouth of the Gorge" as sugessted by Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (cf. below) ?
Under this proposal the "hundred-thousands of Israel" were encamped "before" the eastern mouth of the Wadi Tumilat "GORGE," _in the broad plain_ between Wadi Tumilat and Yam Suph (Lake Timsah ?). That is to say, that the Wadi Tumilat "Gorge" _IS_ Ha-Hiroth/Hah-Chiroth?
Stong suggested that Pi-ha-hiroth possibly meant "mouth of the Gorges" :
Pihahiroth (Strong # 6367):
Pi ha-chiyroth, pee-hah-khee-roth, from 6310 and the femine plural of a noun (from the same root as 2356) with the article interposed; MOUTH OF THE GORGES; Pi-ha-Chiroth, a place in Egypt. Pi-hahiroth. [In Numbers 14:19 without the Pi-]" (p. 94. James Strong. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Complete and Unabridged. 1977. Word Books. Waco, Texas)
# 6310 peh, from 6284, the mouth...
# 2356 chowr, khore or chor, khore the same as # 2352; a cavity, socket, den, cave, hole.
# 2352 chuwr, khoor; chur, khoor, from an unused root probably meaning to bore; the crevice of a serpent; the cell of a prison, a hole.
Special update 22 Jan 2005:
I have been alerted by e-mail from an individual who recently visited the areas of Lake Timsah, Wadi Tumilat and the Eastern Delta, that the wadi does NOT qualify as being a "gorge," is of a shallow depression, and the elevations on either side are not more than 40 meters in height. Based on this inofrmation, I hereby _withdraw_ my earlier proposal that the wadi was a "gorge" and I NOW understand that Strong was _wrong_ in rendering Pi-ha-hiroth as a "gorge." It is more likely that K.A. Kitchen is CORRECT and the term Pi-ha-hiroth is referring to an "irrigation channel or canal," such an ancient channel does exist in Wadi Tumilat, extending from the Delta to Lake Timsah.
A helpful archaeological site map of Wadi Tumilat based on surface survey findings of sherds by the Canadians in the 1980's is available on the Internet, please click here.
Baal Zephon :
A cylinder seal found at Tell ed Daba (Avaris of the Hyksos?) shows the weather-god, Baal of Saphon standing over two mountains, below them a serpent suggesting the unruly sea or yam. In Ugaritic myths he was associated with the having power over the sea or Yam, having defeated his brother to be lord of the earth.
The names associated with this area, Pi-ha-hiroth, Migdol, and Yam Suph suggest Asiatic or Semitic toponyms. Could these toponymns be traced back to the 16th century B.C. Asiatic Hyksos who left graves in this area near Tell el Maskhutah? They DID worship Baal of Saphon at Avaris, and if they saw Lake Timsah as being a part of the Bitter Lakes and Gulf of Suez as suggested by Kitchner, they could have associated the slight elevations flanking the Wadi Tumilat depression as Baal-Zephon?
The only Migdol to date, near Lake Timsah, is at Tell el Maskhutah, this fortress being founded by Pharaoh Necho II ca. 610 B.C. to defend the Red Sea Canal he was building. I have proposed elsewhere that the Exodus account was written ca. 562 B.C. in the Exile, and that archaeology has revealed that a number of sites appearing in the Exodus narratives, in Canaan, the Negev and Transjordan date no earlier than the 8th-7th centuries B.C. So, it is possible that Necho's "migdol" or fort is what is being alluded to here.
Josephus on the Exodus:
"So the Hebrews went out of Egypt...Now they took their journey by Letopolis, a place at that time deserted, but where Babylon was built afterward, when Cambyses laid Egypt waste..."
(Flavius Josephus [William Whiston, translator]. Book 2. Chapter 15. Antiquities of the Jews.)
Smith on Babylon in Egypt :
"A fortress in Lower Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, exactly opposite the pyramids, and at the beginning of the canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea. Its origin was ascribed by tradition to a body of Babylonian deserters. It first became an important place under the Romans. Augustus made it the station of one of the three Egyptian legions."
(p. 114. "Babylon." William Smith. A Classical Dictionary of Biography, Mythology, and Geography. London. John Murray. 1875)
Today "Babylon" is in a suburb of Cairo. Apparently Josephus believed that the Exodus was from the Cairo area via what is today called the "Pilgrim's route to Mecca" (the Hajj) which passes by the modern port of Suez on the Red Sea. To the south of the port lies the towering Gebel Ataqa abutting the sea, north of this mount is a high pass formed by smaller mountains. Most probably this was the area Josephus envisioned as where Israel was trapped by high precipes and the sea. Of interest is that the Christian Pilgrimess, Egeria/Etheria (ca. 4th/5th century A.D.) stated that her guides identified this area, which she called Clysma, after the Roman fortress erected by the emperor Trajan, as where Israel crossed the Red Sea.
Josephus (Emphasis mine) :
"Now when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared to fight them, and by their multitude THEY DROVE THEM INTO A NARROW PLACE...They also seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, SHUTTING THEM UP BETWEEN INACCESIBLE PRECIPICES AND THE SEA; FOR THERE WAS A RIDGE OF MOUNTAINS THAT TERMINATED AT THE SEA, WHICH WERE IMPASSABLE BY REASON OF THEIR ROUGHNESS AND OBSTRUCTED THEIR FLIGHT; wherefore they there pressed upon the Hebrews with their army, where [the ridges of] the mountains were closed with the sea; which army they placed at the chops of the mountains, so that might deprive them of any passage into the plain."
(Flavius Josephus [William Whiston, Translator]. Antiquities of the Jews. Book 2. Chapter 15.)
Yam Suph (the sea of reeds?):
Both Hoffmeier and Kitchen have noted that old travel guides of Egypt from the turn of the 20th century make mention of the tall reeds found in Lake Timsah, which for them suggests this is Yam Suph, "the Sea of Reeds." _I will NOW have to agree with them_. But I would "add" an observation here, if the 12th Dynasty Red Sea canal was still open in the Exodus period, it would have provided freshwaters not only to Lake Timsah, but to both of the Bitter Lakes and the shallow bay at Clysma/Suez. This mix of freshwaters and salt waters would create an environment for reeds (Egyptian tsuf, Hebrew suph) to grow in. That is to say, from Lake Timsah to Clysma/Suez the WHOLE AREA was FULL OF REEDS (the reeds being transposed from the Nile's banks by the canal). Now Hoffmeier has proposed that Yam Suph also applies to the Bitter Lakes, and the Gulf of Suez, suggesting that in antiquity, the sea levels were higher. The problem behind his proposal is, that reeds must have some admixture of freshwater. With a Red Sea Canal delivering freshwater as far as the Gulf of Suez, we have the needed element for reeds/marsh grasses to thrive. I am thus proposing that when Israel left Egypt, the Red Sea canal was still delivering freshwaters to Suez and thus the whole tract, from Timsah to Suez was chockablock choked with reeds or marsh grasses, thus the reason they called this body of water the "reed sea." They may also have created a punning using suph "to terminate" (as in Pharaoh's host being "terminated" as another designation for this Reed-Sea).
I have in earlier articles posted at this website suggested that the crossing of the Red Sea was at Clysma where Christian traditions place the event as preserved in the pilgrimage account of Lady Egeria/Etheria, ca. 4th/5th century A.D. _I NOW RETRACT THIS IDENTIFICATION_ and AGREE with Kitchen and Hoffmeier that Yam Suph is Lake Timsah.
Why this retraction? My Clysma Red Sea crossing proposal suffered a "fatal flaw", I could NOT adequately account for the bible's statement that after leaving Succoth or Egyptian Tjeku in Wadi Tumilat, they encamped at Etham IN THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS. Naville (1885), Hoffmeier (1996) and Kitchen (2003) had their "wits about them" and realized CORRECTLY Etham had to be near the east end of Tumilat and near Timsah. I finally, after many years of resistance (and "denial"), came to "realize" (and face the facts) that the distance was just too great between Tjeku/Succoth in Tumilat and Suez/Clysma for Etham to be "at or near" Suez/Clysma.
Hoffmeier (1996) and Kitchen (2003) have suggested that ALL the Lakes of the Isthmus of Suez, Ballah, Timsah and the two Bitter lakes, as well as the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba may have been ALL SUBSUMED under the apellative "Yam Suph" and that although this meant initially "Sea of Reeds," it may also have been punned into the Hebrew Suph, "to terminate", as in Pharaoh's termination. I NOW find myself in agreement with them.
"If the term suph is related to Egyptian twf(y)- and I think this is virtually certain...then yam suph may have been the Hebrew for the proper name p3 twfy, a marshy region of the eastern delta. Alternately, yam suph in the exodus narratives may be simply be a descriptive term that could have applied to any marshy lakes in the Isthmus of Suez.
The crossing of the sea signaled the end of the sojourn in Egypt and it certainly was the end of the Egyptian army that pursued the fleeing Hebrews (Ex 14:23-29; 15:4-5). After this event at yam suph, perhaps the verb soph, meaning "destroy" and "come to an end," originated (cf. Amos 3:15; Jer 8:13; Isa 66:17; Psa 73:19). Another possible development of this root is the word suphah, meaning "storm-wind"...The meanings "end" and "storm-wind" would have constituted nice puns on the event that took place at the yam suph." (p. 214. Hoffmeier)
I NOW find myself in AGREEMENT with Kitchner 's following observations about Yam Suph and Etham being near Ismailia, and that the "wilderness of Shur/Etham" is the Isthmus of Suez extending from Timsah to the Suez Gulf.
Kitchen on yam suph:
"The term yam suph is also applied to the Gulf of Suez and to the Gulf of Aqabah, which flank the Sinai Peninsula. For the Gulf of Suez, cf. Num. 33:10-11, south of Etham, Marah and Elim. For the Gulf of Aqaba, cf. Num 21:4; also Num 14:25, Deut 1:40, 2:1 and perhaps Jer 49:21. All other allusions are to the original yam suph of the Exodus at Pi-Hahiroth. In the case of the two gulfs, we have nothing more than extension of usage. Going from north to south, one passed a series of stretches of often salty water, and on arrival at the area of the later Suez, here was another long piece of water, stretching into the hazy distance...So it was simply taken as being yet another installment of the collective yam suph. Across the Sinai, an anologous judgement was made; here was another long body of water stretching out south into the haze or horizon like Menzaleh or that of Suez. Nothing more sophisticated than that need be assumed. Compare the extension of the Greek term "Red Sea" to cover at one time the Perso-Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and our present Red Sea...Thus after crossing the lakes section of yam suph (be it Ballah, Timsah, or Bitter), the Hebrews (if headed south) would go through the Shur/Etham desert past the Etham (Ismailia) zone, on past the latitude of Suez, the three days march (thirty-six to forty-five miles at twelve to fifteen miles per day) to Marah, Elim, then (again) to yam suph. This was simply a stop by the east (Sinai) shore of the Suez Gulf..."
(pp. 262-263. K.A. Kitchen. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. 2003. William B. Eerdmans Publisher. Grand Rapids, Michigan)
The "wilderness of Shur/Etham":
The pilgrimess Egeria/Etheria mentioned that after stopping at Clysma that her party took _four days_ to reach the town of Arabia in the land of Gessen (Goshen [Could her Gessen be preserved today as the "locks of Kassassin" in Wadi Tumilat, cf. Naville's map of the Wadi). She explained that the highway from the Thebaid to Pelusium ran near Arabia and thus the soldiers who accompanied her in the wilderness took leave of her at the town of Arabia. I suspect that Arabia is today el Abbasa el Gharbiya, at the west end of wadi Tumilat and the edge of the Delta. After having calculated the length of wadi Tumilat, I came to realize that from Gharbiya to Timsah is approximately 20 + miles. That is to say, one day's journey on foot for a group of travelers. From Timsah to Suez/Clysma is approximately 60 miles, that is to say, three day's journey.
Egeria/Etheria:
"When we arrived back at Clysma, we had to rest there once again...I was, of course, already acquainted with the land of Gessen [Hebrew: Goshen] from the time when I first went to Egypt. It was, however, my purpose to see all the places which the children of Israel had touched on their journey, from their going forth from Ramesses until they reached the Red Sea at a place which is now called Clysma, because of the fortress which stands there. It was, therefore, our wish to go from Clysma to the land of Gessen, specifically to the city which is called Arabia. This city is in the land of Gessen, and this territory takes its name from it, that is , the "land of Arabia" is the "land of Gessen." Though this land is a part of Egypt, it is nevertheless far better than the rest of Egypt. It is a four-day journey across the desert from Clysma, that is, from the Red Sea, to the city of Arabia. Though the journey is across the desert, each resting station has a military outpost with soldiers and officers who always guided us from fortress to fortress...We were also shown along the same route the city of Pithom, which the children of Israel had built. It is here that we crossed the frontiers of Egypt, leaving behind the lands of the Saracens. Today this same Pithom is a fortress. Heroopolis, which existed at the time Joseph went forth to meet his father Jacob, who was coming to Egypt, as it written in the book of Genesis is today a village, but a large one, one which we would call a little town. This little town has a church, shrine of martyrs, and many cells sheltering holy monks...This town, which is called Hero today, is located 16 miles from the land of Gessen and is within the frontiers of Egypt. This place is quite pleasant, for a branch of the Nile flows here. We then left Hero and came to the city called Arabia which is a city in the land of Gessen. For this reason it is written that Pharaoh said to Joseph: In the best land of Egypt, gather your father and brothers, in the land of Gessen, the land of Arabia.
Ramesses lies four miles from the city of Arabia. In order to reach the resting station of Arabia, we passed straight through Ramesses. Today this city of Ramesses is a barren plain with not a single dwelling place standing there. It is clear that it was extensive in circumference and had many buildings, for its enormous ruins are visible even today, just as they fell. There is nothing there today except a single enormous Theban stone on which are two very large carved figures, which are said to be of the Holy man Moses and Aaron. It is said that the children of Israel placed them there in honor of them...for on the day which we arrived at the resting station of Arabia...At this point we sent back the soldiers, who, through the authority of Rome, had escorted us as long as we were traveling through unsafe places; now, however, it was no longer necessary for us to trouble the soldiers, since there was a public highway through Egypt, passing by the city of Arabia and running from the Thebaid to Pelusium. We set out from there, and we traveled through the whole land of Gessen..."
(pp. 60-64. George E. Gingras.[Translator]. Egeria: A Pilgrimage. New York. Newman Press. 1970)
This observation set off "alarm bells" in my mind. According to the biblical narratives, after crossing Yam Suph, Israel wandered for _three days_ in the wilderness of Etham/Shur, arriving at Marah, whose water was bitter, Moses cutting down a palmtree and tossing it in to sweeten the water.
Woolley and Lawrence noted back in 1914 ( The Wilderness of Zin ) that the Arabs had told them that the track from Wadi Tumilat and Lake Timsah, via the Negev (Muweileh and Halatsa) and Beersheba was called in their language the "Darb es Shur" (the way to Shur). The bible states that Israel marched _three days_ in the wilderness of Shur/Etham. I note that just east of Retabeh, an elevation on the north side of Wadi Tumilat called Abu Suwayr/Suweir- I suspect this is Shur (Hebrew Shuwr). That is to say, the Darb es-Shur takes one directly to Egypt via Wadi Tumilat past Suweir/Shur. Because Suweir lies east of Retabeh, which was the border fortress of Ramesside Egypt, the wilderness of Shur is the area east of Retabeh. I thus understand the "wilderness of Etham/Shur to be the Isthmus of Suez" from Wadi Tumilat to the Gulf of Suez ( but named after the east end of Wadi Tumilat [Tum preserves Etham or Timsah preserves Etham?] and Abu Suweir).
As Egeria had stated it was four days from Clysma (Suez) to Arabia in Goshen, and as I had calculated 60 miles between Timsah and Suez, it "dawned on me that the _3-day_ march into the wilderness of Shur/Etham must situate Marah somewhere near Suez. The Greek Septuaginta version of the Bible calls Marah, Merrah. I noted on a map, just east of the port of Suez, a Bir el Murr, in a region called Qaret el Murr and a nearby Wadi el Murr. The map stated that Bir el Murr had, and I quote: "VERY BRACKISH WATER." Perhaps the Septuaginta rendering of Marah as Merrah with two "_rr's_" is preserved in Murr?
The next site in the biblical account is Elim, famed for its 12 springs and 70 palmtrees. Most bible dictionaries identify it with a palm oasis at Wadi Gharandal. Which I accepted. I NOW TODAY -08 Feb. 2004- RETRACT this identification. I note that the Egyptologist, Dr. Gregory D. Mumford (Toronto University) has on-line an account ( <http://www.deltasinai.com/sinai-01.htm> ) of his excavations in the southern Sinai. He mentioned in passing, and provided, a photo of Ayun Musa at his website. What RIVETED MY ATTENTION was his statement that Ayun Musa means "the wells of Moses" and that this oasis possesses TWELVE SPRINGS. I thought A-HAH !!! Elim's 12 springs is Ayun Musa ..."Has anyone else made this observation?" Another hunt TODAY on the internet turned up an article by Gordon Franz on identifying Mount Sinai- he too stated that Ayun Musa had 12 springs as noted by some geologists back in 1921, and that Ayun Musa might be Elim. So, I find myself in agreement with Franz, having TODAY made the discovery independent and unknowingly of his identification in 2001.
Franz:
"The Numbers account says that they camped by the Red Sea after their time in Elim (Num. 33:10,11). Somewhere at the entrance to the Wadi Sudr would be a good candidate for this campsite." (Apparently after this incident, the Israelites turned south to Elim with its twelve springs and 70 palm trees (Ex. 15:27; Num. 33:9). A good candidate for this site is one of the most prominent springs in the Sinai Peninsula, 'Ayun Musa. Two geologists observed that "there are twelve springs, from two which good drinking water may be obtained" (Moon and Sadek 1921:2). In their geological report, they have pictures of this spring with palm trees in the area. When Robinson visited in 1838 he observed only seven springs (1977:90)."
(Gordon Franz. Mt. Sinai is NOT at Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia. March 14, 2002.
Franz suggested in the above article that the Red Sea encampment might be the coastal plain south of Ayun Musa (Elim). I am in agreement with him. Where we "part company" is his notion that Mount Sinai is Jebel Sin Bishar, following arguments advanced by the Israeli scholar, Professor Har-El.
Franz:
"The Numbers account says that they camped by the Red Sea after their time in Elim (Num. 33:10,11). Somewhere at the entrance to the Wadi Sudr would be a good candidate for this campsite. After, they headed up Wadi Sudr to Jebel Sin Bishar, the Biblical (and real) Mt. Sinai (Har-El 1983; Faiman 2000:115-118).
Menashe Har-El makes a solid case for Jebel Sin Bishar being the real Mt. Sinai. He points out that Jebel Sin Bishar is the only mountain in the Sinai Peninsula that preserves the toponym "Sinai" in the word "Sin" (Har-El 1983:421). He states that "the meaning of Sin Bishar is the reporting of the Law, or Laws of man. This name hints at "the Giving of the Law" (ibid). Josephus says that Mt. Sinai is the highest mountain in that area (Antiquities 2:264, 3:75,76; LCL 4:279, 355). While "Jebel Sin Bishar is only 618 meters above sea level, it is the most prominent of its surrounding" (ibid). Remember, Moses at 80 years old, had to climb that mountain several times!"
Franz does not in his above article attempt to locate the intervening sites following the Red Sea encampment, such as the wilderness of Sin, Dophkah, Alush, Rephidim and its "rock in Horeb," followed by the wilderness of Sinai and Mount Sinai (Nu 33:10-16).
I have discovered, as of 25 Feb. 2004, that I am in error in attributing the identification of Elim with Ayun Musa to Franz, this proposal was earlier made by Professor Menashe Har-El of Tel Aviv University. Professor Har-El (1983) apparently also proposed that Marah was Bir el Murr and Elim was Ayun Musa, according to the map from his book (Sinai Journeys, The Route of the Exodus. San Diego, California. Ridgefield.1983 [earlier published in Hebrew at Tel Avi in 1968]) reproduced at the at the following url http://www.bibleprobe.com/Lawz.htm
After Elim, then, Israel camps by the Red Sea. Looking at maps, I note that from Ayun Musa (Elim) to the high plain of El Sanawi, wedged between mountains, is a great coastal plain in full view of the Red Sea. I suggest that Israel camped somewhere along this plain in full view the sea (Again, I arrived at this conclusion unaware of Har-El's and Franz's earlier proposal).
Afterwards Israel enters the Wilderness of Sin, rendered Sina by the Greek Septuaginta Bible. I propose two possible sites for Sin/Sina, its either the high plain of El Sanawi north of wadi Gharandal or it is another high plain, again wedged between two mountains, called Hosan Abu Zenna, just east of Gebel Hammam Faraun ("the Hotsprings of Pharaoh").
Dophkah, Hebrew dopqa, is associated by some with the Egyptian word mfkt, meaning turqouise, and thus the site is located at the turquoise mines of Serabit el Khadim, operated by the Egyptians since Old Kingdom times (cf. pp. 222-223. Jeffrey R. Zorn. "Dophkah." David Noel Freedman, editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 1992. Doubleday. New York).
The Israeli Egyptologist, Raphael Giveon, who has conducted excavations at Serabit el Khadim, has objected to this identification :
"Another station, Dophkah is marked in some Biblical atlases at the exact site of the Egyptian temple of Seabit el Khadim. The identification is based on the one letter "f" which both words have in common, Biblical dfq and Egyptian mfkt (see p. 57): the q and k are different sounds. Both words have feminine endings like so many names of localities. This identification, which we think is wrong, has given rise to two speculations concerning the whereabouts of Mount Sinai itself. Several scholars think that the Children of Israel would have been afraid to pass so near an Egyptian mining center. On the other hand, we know that at times Canaanites worked the mines (see p. 131) and in the opinion of some scholars, they would have helped the Children of Israel to find their way and would have shown them sources of water and perhaps shared their provisions with them. Niebuhr [1762], who was the first to see the temple of Serabit el Khadim with its stelae standing, thought that this was a cemetery. He also tried an identification with a Biblical site: the Book of Numbers, chapter 11 verse 34, which tells us of the many after eating quails, which they dried for preservation. The place where the victims were buried was called: "Graves of the Greedy." [Kibroth-ha-attavah]. Niebuhr thought in all seriousness that he discovered the very spot."
(p. 148. Raphael Giveon. The Stones of Sinai Speak. 1978. Tokyo. Gakuseisha)
Having identified the wilderness of Sin (LXX: Sina) with either El Sanawi or Hosan Abu Zenna, I would would suggest that Alush might be Bir El-Guweisa, south of Hosan Abu Zenna, and west of Ras Umm Qatafa (elevation: 1101 Meters, a high peak of the El -Tih mountainous ridge that forms a southern perimeter to the El-Arish drainage basin).
Could Dophkah, Hebrew dopqa be Qatafa (the qa transposed and d becoming t?). I am using a 1:250,000 scale map which is NOT ideal for site identifications, a 1:50,000 would be preferred but I am unaware of said maps being in existence of this scale for the Sinai (cf. Qal`et El-Nakhl, Egypt . Sheet NH 36-11. 1972. 1:250,000. Washington, DC).
Another possibility for Dophkah is Wadi el Foqa to the east of the Egyptian mining camp near Serabit El Khadim, draining from the western escarpment of the et-Tih plateau and Gebel Foqa?
Alternately, Dophkah might be the well of Qattar Dafari, east of Bir el Merkha and south of Ras Abu Zenimeh, many scholars have associated the plain of el Merkha with the wilderness of Sin (cf. p. 269. Kenneth A. Kitchen. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. 2003. William B. Eerdmans, Publisher. Grand Rapids, Michigan).
Burkhardt (1816) on the freshwater (catchment pools of rainwater) in the mountains of Wady Dhafary (modern-day Qattar Dafari). Note the brackets [ ] are mine:
"On the plain we fell in with the great road from Tor to Suez, but soon quitted it to the right, and turned to the north in search of a natural reservoir of rain, in which the Bedouins knew that some water was still remaining. At the end of five hours and a half, we reached a narrow cleft in the mountain, where we halted, and my guides went a mile up in it to fill the skins. This is called Wady el Dhafary; it is sometimes frequented by the Arabs, because it furnishes THE ONLY SWEET WATER between Tor and Suez, though it is out of the direct road, and the well of Morkha [Bir el Merkha] is at no great distance. Some rain had fallen here in the winter, and water was therefore met with in several ponds among the rocks...Travelers will do well to enquire for the Dhafary, in their way to Feiran [from Suez] as the water of Morkha [Merkha] is of the VERY WORST KIND...We reached Morkha, which bears from Dhafary NW by N in half an hour, the road leading over level but very rocky ground. Morkha is a small pond in the sandstone rock, close to the mountains. Two date-trees grow near its margin. THE BAD TASTE OF THE WATER seems to be owing partly to the weeds, moss and dirt which the pond is filled, but chiefly, no doubt, to the saline nature of the soil around it. Next to Ayoun Mousa [the wells of Moses], in the vicinity of Suez, and Gharandel, it is the principal station on this road. After watering our camels, which was our only motive for coming to the Morkha, we returned to the sea-shore...Before us extended the large bay of Birket Faraoun, so called, from being according to Arab and Egyptian tradition, the place where the Israelites crossed the sea and where the returning waves overwhelmed Pharaoh and his host."
(pp. 469-470. Johann Ludwig Burkhardt [John Lewis Burkhardt]. Travels in Syria and the Holy Land1822. Available in paperback as a reprint, but without accompanying maps, at www.kessinger.net)
I understand that Israel then tuned at the pass below Ras Umm Qatafa and entered the huge plain which abuts the cliffs of the Et-Tih plateau, called Hosh el Bagar and Ramlet Himeiyir, which would be quite adequate for the "hundred-thousands" of Israel, as against the much smaller plain of er-Raha below Ras Safsafa which is 1/10th the size of Bagar-Himeiyir, and usually associated with Gebel Musa and Mt. Sinai in Christian traditions.
At Rephidim, the narrative becomes confusing. We are told the nation is thirsty and Moses strikes a rock "in" Horeb, then the Amalekites appear and and a pitched battle is fought. Then Moses' father-in-law Jethro appears and counsels Moses on appointing Judges for the people instead of doing it all by himself. We are informed that Jethro met Moses at Har El, the "mountain of God." Then, "the surprise," Israel leaves Rephidim, Horeb, and the mountain of God, and pitches in the wilderness of Sinai and before Mount Sinai (cf. Ex 17:1-24, 19:1-2).
Others have commented about the confusing narrative about a "mountain of God" being at Rephidim being apparently out of order:
May and Metzger:
"Exodus 18:5, The narrative is out of order, for Israel reached the mountain of God later (19.2)." (p.90 Notes. Herbert G. May & Bruce M. Metzger, editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible With the Apocrypha. Revised Standard Version. 1977. Oxford University Press. New York)
I propose that the source of the confusion is that several sites are very near each other, and the narrator is not aware of this, thus the garbled notions that a mountain of God exists at Rephidim along with a rock of Horeb.
I identify Horeb (Aramaic Choreb) with Gebel Ghorabi/Gharabi, just south east of the Egyptian mining temple of Serabit el Khadim, and nearby Mount Sinai with Gebel Saniya, which is adjacent to and just southeast of Gharbiya. Both mounts are east of Gebel Serabit el Khadim, and their eastern slopes abut at the great plain of Ramlet Himeiyir, which is where I envision Israel as encamped. I understand that Rephidim is Serabit el Khadim and vicinity. Perhaps Reph' has been transformed into [Se]rab[it], (p becoming b?) and -hidim is Khadim? (Abu Zenima. Southern Sinai. Sheet 5. Survey of Egypt. 1936. 1:100,000) Please note that the 1936 map spells the mount as Gebel Ghorabi whilst the 1972 map renders Gharabi (Qal`et El-Nakhl, Egypt. Sheet NH 36-11. Scale: 1:250,000. 1972 Washington, DC). Another MORE LIKELY plain for the assembly of Israel before the sacred mount, is the HIGH PLAIN bounded on the north by the Hathor Shrine, on the west by Gebel Serabit el Khadim and on the east by Gebels Ghorabi and Saniya. Although this plain is much smaller than Ramlet Himeiyir, it places the Israelite encampments closer to the Hathor Shrine and the Egyptian mines and encampments with their shattered steli-form Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions. It also is ideally suited for Yahweh "to dawn upon" the nation "from the east," that is east of Ghorabi (Horeb?) and Saniya (Sinai?), as noted in scripture, he rising or dawning from Sinai, Seir and Paran (De 33:2), cf. the map by Siliotti of the Hathor Shrine and Djebel Ghorabi to its SE (Alberto Siliotti. 1994. Sinai, Geschichte,. Kunst, Touristik. Karl Muller Verlag. Erlangen, Deutschland. pp. 31, 33 and 37 [Djebel Saniya appearing on p. 37]).
Viewers will probably be intriqued as to why I locate Rephidim and Sinai near Serabit el Khadim. My "presuppositions" are of a Secular-Humanist nature. I understand that ALL religions are the invention of the human imagination. I thus do NOT believe a God appeared at Mt. Sinai, wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tables and that Moses threw them down and that a second set were made. So I seek a "rational" answer for these motifs in the archaeological evidence of the southern Sinai, and I find it in the vicinity of the Egyptian Mining Temple at Serabit el Khadim. In this region are found Late Bronze Age (ca. 1560-1200 B.C.) and Iron Age I (ca. 1220-1130 B.C.) Ramesside pottery debris of the Exodus era (the Exodus being dated either 1512 B.C. (some Catholic scholars), 1446 B.C. (some Protestant scholars) or 1260 B.C. (Liberal scholars) and mining camps. Also found are shattered Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, which, having broken loose from the mountain's surface from near mines, and having fallen to the earth along with other scree and debris, lie at the base of these mounts; to an "untrained eye" perhaps these fallen inscriptions "resembled" shattered stone tablets. I believe that these "physical phenomenon" are what is behind the notion of Moses' shattered Ten Commandments written by the hand of God.
The singing, and dancing by Israel before the Golden Calf I associate with the Asaitic miners who honored Hathor the Cow Goddess with song and dance at the Egyptian Hathor shrine at Serabit el Khadim. In Egyptian Myths, Hathor was also a sky goddess who gave birth each morning to the Sun as a "Golden Calf." By sunset, this Calf had been transformed into a virile, mature Bull who "mounted his mother," Hathor the sky-cow, and impregnating her, assured his rebirth the next morning again as the Golden Calf. Please note that the Egyptian mines and encampments along with the shattered Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions are found in areas west and south of the the Temple.
I am unaware of any archaeological surveys having been conducted near Gebels Ghorabi and Saniya, to establish whether or not debris exists of the Late Bronze or Early Iron I eras. It is just possible Israel could have been envisioned as assembled within the plain bounded on the north by the Hathor Temple, Gebel Serabit el Khadim on the southwest, and Gebels Ghorabi/Gharabi and Saniya on the southeast (cf. the maps of the Hathor Temple, Gebels Serabit el Khadim, Ghorabi, Saniya, and locations of inscriptions, mines and encampments on pp. 31-33, & 36-37. Alberto Siliotti. Sinai, Geschichte, Kunst, Touristik. 1994. Karl Muller Verlag. Erlangen, Deutschland [1994. White Star S.r.l. Via Candido Sassone, 24, Vercelli, Italien] ISBN 3-86070-503-2).
Gardiner, Peet and Cerny describe this high plain, actually a large "mountianous plataeu":
"Rod el-Air ["valley of donkeys"] branches off Wady Umm Themaim...A narrow path leads up the valley over a cascade which is impossible for donkeys now but was evidently not so difficult in antiquity. The graffiti are about hal-way up Rod elAir just below the cascade on a rock wall on the right side of the path...The valley ends high up on th plateau near the place called by Petrie 'Camp of the Egyptians', and running in the direction east-west lies on the shortest line connecting Serabit el-Khadim with the coast."
(p.13. Alan H. Gardiner, T. Eric Peet & Jaroslav Cerny. The Inscriptions of Sinai. Part II, Translations and Commentary. Egypt Exploration Society. London. 1955)
"Serabit el-Khadim may be described as a plateau forming the upper surface of a great mountain promontory defined by a number of valleys, Wady Ba`lah (Petrie's Wady Bateh) on the west, Wady Suwwuk on the north, Wady Serabit el-Khadim on the north-east and east, and Wady Shellal, the mountain Tartir ed-Dhami and Wadi Sidrah on the south. Little is known of this rectangular or diamond-shaped region south of the twin peaks of Umm Riglein ('Mother of Two Feet') which form so conspicuous a landmark in the views looking southward from the temple of Hathor. Our concern is only with the more northerly parts specifically known as Serabit el-Khadim...The mountain mass rises with great abruptness from the surrounding valleys, and cannot be climbed with comfort from any of these directions."
(p. 32. Gardiner, Peet & Cerny. 1955)
The biblical notion of thousands perishing for having honored the Golden Calf, suggests to my mind that "burial tumuli" or "cairns" ought to exist near Mount Sinai -wherever it might be- and I accordingly associate the Middle and New Kingdom burial cairns in the vicinity of Serabit el Khadim and the mining encampments as what lies behind the biblical events, but "grossly exaggerated in numbers of deaths."
Sass remarks on the burial tumuli found at Serabit el Khadim:
"...there are three types of early tomb structures in Sinai -the Nawamis, the large tumuli at Serabit el-Khadim (smaller than the Nawamis), and small tumuli, also at Serabit el-Khadim. The Nawamis have been dated by the objects discovered in them to the end of the 4th -beginning of the 3rd millennia B.C., the large tumuli at Serabit el-Khadim are dated on the basis of the Egyptian inscriptions to the Middle Kingdom, while the small, hitherto undatable tumuli, must be of the New Kingdom date following this "the smaller, the later" line of thought...It is to Albright's credit (1948, 11-12) that it was he who identified the small tumuli as tombs, an identification which had been disputed until then."
(p.138. Benjamin Sass. The Genesis of the Alphabet and Its Development in the Second Millennium B.C. Wiesbaden. Otto Harrassowitz. 1988 [Aegypten und Altes Testament, Band 13])
Of interest is an observation made by the Israeli Egyptologist Raphael Giveon, who has personally conducted exacavations at the Hathor Shrine. He noted that the intrepid explorer Carsten Niebuhr had visited the shrine in 1762 and had thought it was a huge "graveyard," identifying the standing and shattered stelae erected by the Egyptians to Hathor's honor with tombstones (the stelae do resemble European tombstones). He thought it was Kibroth-hatta`avah of scripture, "the graves of the Lusting," a place where Yahweh struck down Israel after feeding the ingrates quail.
Giveon on Niebuhr's notion the Hathor shrine was a graveyard:
"...the 21st of September, 1762...this day can be regarded as the day of the scientific discovery of Serabit el Khadim."
(p. 42. Raphael Giveon. 1978. The Stones of Sinai Speak. Tokyo. Gakuseisha)
Giveon quoting Niebuhr:
"We were not a little surprised when we found in the middle of the desert on such a high mountain (on this side very steep -i.e. after an ascent of one and a half hours), a magnificent Egyptian cemetery; because that is what every European will call it...There are a great many stones, partly standing upright, partly fallen down or broken. They are five to seven feet long, one and a half to two feet broad and covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs. They can hardly be anything else but tombstones. Of a building which I have illustrated on Plate XLIV, nothing remains save the walls...All the tombstones and statues are of fine and hard sandstone...If other travelers think it worthwhile to visit these antiquities in the desert, I think it desirable that they initiate digging here, in order to find out if remains of dead bodies are to be found...Perhaps this is where one should place the "Graves of Greed," [Kibroth-hatta`avah] Numbers 11:34 or Mount Hor, Numbers 33:38? This cemetery may have originated with the Israelites or with the older inhabitants of this country."
(pp. 42-43. Giveon. 1978)
According to Gardiner, Peet and Cerny, SOME OF THE STELAE erected at the Hathor shrine ARE INDEED A TYPE OF TOMBSTONE [funeral stelae], so Niebuhr's "confusion" is understandable, and perhaps 9th/8th century BCE Judaeans visiting this area from nearby Paran (the Feiran Oasis having Judaean 9th-8th century BCE sherds) also saw these stelae as "evidence" of a large number of people from Egypt, that is, "Israel," being slain and buried here?
Gardiner, Peet, and Cerny (Cerny editing and updating the research of Gardiner and Peet):
"The inscriptions on free-standing stelae: These fall naturally into two classes, (a) the great stelae found in the stone enclosures of the main approach to the temple and in the old approach to the sacred cave...The finest are those of the Middle Kingdom...The small stelae of the class (b) differ in no way from the ordinary funerary stelae found in Egyptian cemetries. On them we see an Egyptian making an offering before some god with the usual htp-di-nsw prayer inscribed beneath. Occasionally some reference to the expedition is also made. We need not for a moment assume that the persons in whose name these small stelae were inscribed were dead at the time of their setting up, even though they are sometimes described as m3`hrw. The same formula occasionally occurs on the great commemorative stelae of the Middle Kingdom and we may suppose that in later times, when there was less space to spare on the royal monument for the use of members of the expedition, they adopted the system of dedicating for themselves a funerary tablet of the ordinary pattern, in hope that Hathor of the distant Serabit would not be forgetful of them after their death."
(p. 40. Alan H. Gardiner, T. Eric Peet & Jaroslav Cerny. 1955. The Inscriptions of Sinai. London. Egypt Exploration Society)
Please note that in Egyptian myth, Hathor the cow-goddess admitted all the dead to the Underworld, and prayers were offered up to her beseeching her favor, for she had the power to aid the Righteous Dead in the afterlife, providing them nourishment in the form of food and drink.
Today, pilgrims and tourists to Gebel Musa, and the Saint Catherine Monastery, can, at night, climb the slopes of Gebel Musa in the early morning darkness to behold a truly awe-inspiring sight, the sunrise, the black sky taking on magnificent hues of red, salmon, lavender and gold and then the light strikes the red granite peaks all about them. What these tourists and pilgrims are unaware of, is that an ancient Egyptian (or an Asiatic brought up for 400 years in a Egyptian world), understood that he was beholding the birth of the Golden Calf.
From Mount Sinai Israel next encamped in the wilderness of Paran, perhaps the Oasis of Feiran and Wadi Feiran and its headwaters to the east of the oasis, (all of which lie further to the south of Gebels Serabit el Khadim, Ghorabi/Gharbiya and Saniya)? Israeli archaeologists have documented the presence at the Feiran Oasis, of 9th-8th century B.C. sherds from Judah. Could Jews or Israelites penetrating this area be the source of some of the identifications of sites in the Exodus narratives? Did they understand that the Early Bronze Age graves or tumuli and habitations near the Oasis to be "evidence" of one of Israel's encampments? Alternately, there is a prominent group of Stone Age Nawami tombs on Wadi Feiran enroute between the Feiran Oasis and Gebel Musa- these too might have been envisioned as Israel's graves and encampments and herd pens? These 9th-8th century B.C. Judeans or Israelites did not possess Sir Flinders Petrie's Pottery Chronologies, so they would have NO way of identifying the age of the huts, corrals, and burial tumuli they encountered in Wadi Feiran and its headwaters, they could have seen ALL of these ruins, Stone Age to Iron Age of the southern Sinai as being Israel's.
Of interest here is an observation made by the prominent Egyptologist, T. Eric Peet (1923), to the effect that he understood that the Exodus traditions in their written form were no earlier than the 9th century B.C., the same century that Judaean sherds appear at Feiran (Paran?):
Peet is citing the JEDP theory (Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly redactors) which postulates the earliest author wrote in the 9th
