The Exodus Route in 3D

Jebel Musa, in the south of the Sinai peninsula

Held by Christian tradition since at least the 4th century (Egeria; St Catherine's Monastery under Justinian) and local Bedouin tradition

For

• It fits the southern route and an eleven-day journey to Kadesh-barnea (Deuteronomy 1:2).
• The plain of er-Raha at its foot could hold a large camp, and the area has water and pasture.

Against

• The tradition is some 1,700 years after the events, and no finds tie the mountain to Israel.

Sources: Egeria's Travels, translated by John Wilkinson (3rd ed., Aris & Phillips, 1999); Wikipedia, "Biblical Mount Sinai"

Jebel Serbal, in the west of the peninsula

Held by Some early Christian hermits and monks of the 4th century; a minority view today

For

• Early monastic settlement gathered there before the tradition settled on Jebel Musa.

Against

• It has no large plain at its foot, and the older tradition chose Jebel Musa.
• Josephus calls Sinai the highest mountain of the area; Serbal is lower than its neighbours.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Biblical Mount Sinai"

Jebel al-Lawz, in north-west Arabia (ancient Midian)

Held by Ron Wyatt (1984), Bob Cornuke, Lennart Möller and others

For

• Moses met God near Midian, where Jethro lived (Exodus 3:1), and Paul speaks of "Mount Sinai in Arabia" (Galatians 4:25).
• Its supporters point to a dark summit and stone structures at its foot.

Against

• The features cited have not been confirmed by professional survey; the summit is naturally dark rock, and the structures may belong to other periods. Hoffmeier lists serious errors in the case.
• In Paul's day "Arabia" included the Nabataean lands, which reached into the Sinai peninsula, and the view requires a crossing of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Biblical Mount Sinai"; James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Har Karkom, in the Negev

Held by Emmanuel Anati

For

• It was a major cult centre, with shrines, stone circles and tens of thousands of rock engravings.

Against

• Its busiest religious activity (about 2350–2000 BC) is long before any proposed date of the exodus.
• It lies close to Kadesh-barnea, not eleven days away (Deuteronomy 1:2).

Sources: Emmanuel Anati, The Mountain of God: Har Karkom (Rizzoli, 1986); Wikipedia, "Biblical Mount Sinai"

The northern lakes on Egypt's eastern border (the Ballah Lakes)

Held by James Hoffmeier; Kenneth Kitchen supports a crossing in the Suez isthmus

For

• Survey of the eastern frontier found old lake beds and Egyptian forts; the lakes were a reedy barrier in the New Kingdom.
• Hoffmeier links yam suph with the Egyptian pa-tjufy, a name for lakes of the eastern delta.

Against

• That Israel crossed there is a proposal, not a finding; none of the camp names (Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-zephon) has been securely located.

Sources: James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai (Oxford University Press, 2005); Wikipedia, "Crossing the Red Sea"

The Bitter Lakes or the head of the Gulf of Suez

Held by Many reconstructions of a southern route through western Sinai

For

• It fits a march east from the Wadi Tumilat, a turn back to camp by the sea, and the stations of Numbers 33 down the west of Sinai.
• Oceanographic models show that a strong wind all night can push back shallow water there for some hours (Nof and Paldor).

Against

• The models show a possible means, not what happened, and the camp names before the crossing are still unlocated.

Sources: Doron Nof and Nathan Paldor, 'Are There Oceanographic Explanations for the Israelites' Crossing of the Red Sea?', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 73 (1992); Carl Drews and Weiqing Han, 'Dynamics of Wind Setdown at Suez and the Eastern Nile Delta', PLoS ONE 5(8): e12481 (2010); Wikipedia, "Crossing the Red Sea"

The Gulf of Aqaba at Nuweiba

Held by Ron Wyatt, Lennart Möller, Bob Cornuke and Glen Fritz

For

• Yam Suph is used for the Gulf of Aqaba (1 Kings 9:26), and it leads on to a Sinai in Midian.
• Its supporters report chariot wheels and remains on the gulf floor.

Against

• Nuweiba is over 300 km from the delta, far more than the three camps Numbers 33 lists before the sea; the gulf there is hundreds of metres deep.
• No remains have been recovered, dated or published by professional archaeologists.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Crossing the Red Sea"

About 1446 BC

Held by Readers who take 1 Kings 6:1 and Judges 11:26 as continuous chronology

For

• 1 Kings 6:1 puts the exodus 480 years before Solomon began the Temple (about 966 BC), and Jephthah speaks of 300 years in the land (Judges 11:26).

Against

• Critics read 480 as twelve generations of forty years, a round figure; the Greek text reads 440 (see the textual notes).
• The store city Rameses (Exodus 1:11) fits the 13th century better.

About 1270–1250 BC, under Ramesses II

Held by Kenneth Kitchen, James Hoffmeier and many archaeologists

For

• Pi-Ramesse, the city of Rameses, was built in the 13th century BC at Qantir (Bietak's excavations).
• The Merneptah Stele, about 1208 BC, already names Israel as a people in Canaan.

Against

• Genesis 47:11 already speaks of "the land of Rameses" in Joseph's day, so the name may be a later writer's name for an older place.

Sources: Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003); James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997); Manfred Bietak, Avaris: The Capital of the Hyksos (British Museum Press, 1996), with the Qantir excavation reports; The Merneptah Stele (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 31408), about 1208 BC

Not an accurate account of Israel's origins

Held by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman; the majority of critical scholars

For

• No archaeological trace of Israel's wilderness camps has been found, and Israel appears to emerge in the central highlands of Canaan.

Against

• Tents and campsites of nomads rarely survive, so absence of remains is weak evidence; Egyptian details in the story fit the New Kingdom (Hoffmeier, Kitchen).

Sources: Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed (Free Press, 2001); Wikipedia, "The Exodus"; James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997)