SINAI/HOREB

                                       Mount Gharib / Mount Sinai

            Did the ancient Egyptians leave an account of the Red Sea (Yam Suf) crossing? Most people who have studied this would respond, “But the ancient Egyptians never monumentalized their defeats.” And in truth, though the Egyptians suffered many defeats in history, they did not record them in stone. We are left with reading the histories of other countries to find out what happened. And today, no one is expecting to find in Egypt an ancient inscription that says, “The God of the Hebrew slaves beat us up.”
          However, there is an Egyptian legend that does more than just lend itself to the Exodus of Israel and the sea crossing. It is about one of the many battles that their “gods” had, and in this particular battle, the ‘good god’ who represents Egypt, loses, and the ‘bad god’, who represents the foreigners, wins, and it takes place at the bottom of the sea! But what is of more interest is that this takes place right in front of the four place names of the Red Sea/Yam Suf crossing, as given in Exodus 14:2 (Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-zephon, and "the sea")! This Egyptian legend was said to have happened in a location that no one was expecting, and because of this it has been passed over. More on this legend further on.

Is it true we will “never” find the stations of Exodus? Yes it is true, if we keep looking in the same places! Today there are over a dozen locations for Mount Sinai and five main locations for the Red Sea crossing (see map to left and A-E locations). Some of these proposed sites are over a hundred miles apart, forcing the route and the encampments for the Exodus to different locations. Something must be fundamentally wrong to have such a divergence of opinions. There is. They started from the wrong place, the East Delta!
However, there are four ancient sources that have Moses or the children of Israel on the west side of the Nile.* “Now they took their journey by Letopolis” (west side of the Nile, Josephus, Antiq. II, 15, 1. Josephus even had this at the southern end of Letopolis, across from where Cairo would later be built, which would make it right in front of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid!). Josephus also said, “[T]hey set them [Israel] also to build pyramids...” (Antiq. II, 9:1) No one today believes what Josephus said about Israel building pyramids, but pyramids were built up till the time of Ahmose, of the 18th Dynasty, and all of the pyramids are on the west side of the Nile. Eusebius of Caesarea (263–339 AD) quoting Artapanus (200 BC?), also has Israel leave from the west side of the Nile: (Praeparatio Evangelica, Book IX, Ch. XXVII, though he has Israel crossing the branches of the Delta, which would have been a disaster for their flocks and children). He also has the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh taking place at Memphis, again on the west side of Nile (Book IX, Chapter 27:12-17), as does Philo (20 BC-50 AD,The Life of Moses, I, XX, 118) and John, Bishop of Nikiu (7th century AD, Chronicle, Ch. 30:2). *(Goshen was on both sides of the Nile Delta; see Why Not the East Delta (at top of page), "Section B". As to arguments put forth for Israel leaving from the east side of the Delta and why there are problems with these, see Why Not the East Delta "Section A".)

Egypt controlled other lands out-side of its borders, but these were not considered the country of Egypt. The Delta and the Nile valley are where all the Egyptians lived; to leave these was to leave the country of Egypt (Herodotus, Book II and Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 30) This is why the Bible said Israel left Egypt on the first day of their Exodus. "And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt...." (Exodus 12:51, also verses 17 & 41) Israel left Egypt the first day; they did not have to cross the Sinai Peninsula before they left Egypt.

At Israel's second encampment (Etham) we are told, “And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pi-hahiroth....” (Numbers 33:7) At Israel's third encampment she is back where she had been, in Egypt! Please see Why Not the East Delta, "Section C", at the top of page.

The Red Sea (Yam Suf) crossing. The word translated “sea” (yam) in the Hebrew can refer to a small fresh water lake such as the Sea of Galilee, or, according to Strong's Concordance, a “mighty river". Gesenius's Lexicon said there are two times in the Hebrew Scriptures where “sea” refers to the Euphrates River and two times where it refers to the Nile. Diodorus, who lived during the first century BC, said the Egyptians called the Nile an ocean (Diodorus, book I, 12, 96; the Nile is the longest river in the world). Modern Egyptians commonly call the Nile River El-Bahr = "The Sea".

“And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” (Isaiah 11:15-16)

The “tongue of the Egyptian sea” is translated “bay of the sea” in Joshua 15:2, 5, 18:19. This passage in Isaiah 11:15-16 would make “the tongue of the Egyptian sea” a name for the Delta! The “Egyptian sea” was right off the coast of the Delta (I gave three ancient references in our book), and "the river" is said to have had “seven streams”. This could only be the Nile Delta; there is no other place in Egypt this could be! In ancient times the Nile Delta had seven branches, but five have now silted up. Herodotus (440 BC) Book II, 17, “the five mouths of the Nile.” “Besides these there are two other mouths…. [but]…are not natural branches, but channels made by excavation.” Strabo (63 BC–24 AD) Book XVII “Now these are two mouths of the Nile, of which one is called Pelusiac and the other Canobic or Heracleiotic; but between these there are five other outlets…” Diodorus Siculus (wrote between 60 and 30 BC) 1:33,7, “It [Nile] empties into the sea in seven mouths....” So, not only is the Delta here called a “tongue” but also the “tongue of the Egyptian sea". And the next verse (Isaiah 11:16) says, “And there shall be an highway for the remnant of my people, which shall be left, from Assyria….” When it says "there shall be", it is a prophecy about what will take place in the future, and it has not yet been fulfilled. For this “highway” in verse 16 will not happen till Assyria and Egypt are allied with Israel! “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In

that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria….” (Isaiah 19:23-25) So its fulfillment could not have been at the end of the Babylonian captivity or during the reign of Cyrus, as some would have it.

Others have said that the term “the river”, when used without being qualified, is the Euphrates. But the name “Nile” is never used in the Bible (in the Hebrew), and “the river” can refer to the Nile (Isaiah 19:5, and other passages). It, of course, was qualified, telling us “the river” was with the “Egyptian” Sea, and that it has “seven streams”, a clear reference to the Delta. Then the verse looks back to the time of the Exodus, “like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” This reference to the Exodus is significant! How was God going to destroy “the tongue of the Egyptian sea”? By “his mighty wind” as when they crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), “over the river” (Nile) and “the seven streams” (Delta). And then “men go over dryshod,” as in the Exodus, “like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of Egypt.” How could the other routes use this? The other routes do not have the “seven streams” or a “river" or the “Egyptian” Sea. But the Delta did have all these things. How could it work for the Bitter Lakes, or the Gulf of Aqaba, or the Gulf of Suez? Israel crossed “the tongue of the Egyptian sea” (a flooded Delta), and God’s smiting it in the future will be just “like” He did when Israel left Egypt the first time with Moses!

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        Before dams were built across the Nile, the Delta would flood every year for four or five months and become a sea. The villages in the Delta were built up on mounds, and looked like islands in a sea.
        In the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Pyramid Texts there is a place that is often mentioned called the “Field of Rushes”. These myths were of their “gods” and their Egyptian heaven. The Egyptians associated heaven with things on earth that they were familiar with, and their heaven had both the Nile River and the Delta. At some point during the annual flood, the Egyptians referred to the “Land of Papyrus/Field of Rushes” as a sea/lake of papyrus. (Papyrus can reach a height of 15 feet.) The following quotes are from the book Horus in the Pyramid Text, by Thomas George Allen. On page 43, Mr. Allen quotes the Egyptian text as saying the “Lake of Rushes”, and this is the same place as the “Field of Rushes”, which can be seen by comparing the texts. An can be seen by              The Annual Flood Before the Aswan Dam
comparing the texts. An Egyptian god goes to “purify himself in the Field of Rushes” (found four times on page 29): then in another text we find their gods “have purified themselves in Lake of Rushes…” (found twice on page 43). ....................................... .

      Would not the Egyptian “Lake of Rushes” be translated by the Hebrew words Yam Suf? (“sea of reeds”, Strong's Concordance, and it was deep water, as will be seen.) How else could they have translated it? The name that the Egyptians gave the Delta was “Ta-mehu” (Land of the Papyrus). If we already have a “land of reeds", and we “add water", we should have a “sea of reeds”.
       In the New Testament there are two times where the sea Israel crossed is called the “Red” Sea (in the Greek), and this cannot be translated “reeds” as in the Hebrew “Yam Suph”. Some believe the New Testament was only following the lead of the Septuagint, also written in Greek and which gave “Red Sea” for the Yam Suph, but “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” (II Timothy 3:16), not inspiration of the Septuagint. Herodotus (440 BC) said, “And they [the priest] told me that the first man who ruled over Egypt was Min, and that in his time all Egypt, except the baic canton, was a marsh, none of the land below Lake Moeris then showing itself above the surface of the water.” The Delta has slowly filled in from the silt of the Nile, but at the time of the first king of Egypt, the Delta would have been underwater all year long, not just during the yearly flood! Many I have read believe that at one time the Gulf of Suez extended up to the Bitter Lakes, another 40 miles north of where it is today! If the Delta at one time was always under water, and there was an extended Gulf of Suez, then the Red Sea would have been connected to the Nile! (There is no way to know how long the Red Sea and the Nile were connected; however, it is recorded that they were connected in the Dead Sea Scroll Genesis Apocryphon, given later.)
    Some archaeologists would never use a text that is written about personages of the Bible. They want "science" to guide the way, not information from religion or those who believe in the "supernatural". But these same archaeologists will gladly quote from the texts of the Assyrians or Egyptians. And they readily cherish any papyrus they find in the sand of Egypt, seldom questioning the religious beliefs of the author of the papyrus, who would have worshiped a multitude of Egyptian gods, half of which were animals!

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        It was deep water. To say that because it was a "reed sea" it must be shallow water is like saying the Red Sea must be red but it is blue like any other body of water. Again they called their land the "Field of Rushes" and when it was flooded the "lake of Rushes", and at one time the Red Sea was connected to the Nile by the “Reed Sea". People do not drown in knee deep water and all the Egyptians drowned. “And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left” (Exodus 14:28-29).

           The annual Nile flood averaged 24 feet above the height of the Nile at Cairo, and flooded hundreds of

The sea Israel crossed. Even if one does not agree with these ancient texts I will quote, it still cannot be denied that those who wrote them did believe them, and they have the Nile going into the sea known in the Hebrew as the “Yam Suph”. The sea Israel crossed is the Sea of “Suf” in the Hebrew, for which Strong's Concordance, #5488 gives “reed, rush, water plant”. This Hebrew word "suf" (suph) is the same word translated "flags" of the river (Exodus 2:3, & 5), where the ark that held Moses as a baby was placed in the reeds of the Nile River. It is also the same word translated "Red" from Red Sea in the Hebrew Old Testament. In the Qur'an they also call the crossing place the “Red Sea”: however, one of Islam’s prophets explains that this was the Nile River! His name is Prophet Shu’ayb, a descendant of Abraham and a contemporary of Moses. This is found in Hay Al Qulub Vol. I, Stories of the prophets, Section 13, “An Account of Musa and Harun” (Moses and Aaron). The pertinent parts are, “Musa and the Israelites came to the bank of the river Nile. The water of river split and made a way to cross the river…and the last man of the Pharaoh entered into the river. Allah ordered the wind to move the water and the mountain of water fell on them.” (See also Akhlaq-e-Aaimma, by Sayyed Zafar Hasan Amrohi, r-d). Legends of the Jews, when speaking of the ark of the baby Moses which Miriam put in the Nile, called it the Yam Suf (Red Sea), “And then she [Miriam] abandoned the ark on the shores of the Red Sea.” (Volume II, Moses Rescued from the Water.) Author and highly respected Jewish Priest Eleazar (4th century AD), also believed the placement of Moses’ ark was in the Yam Suf (Babylonian Talmud Sotah 12a). Dead Sea Scroll Genesis Apocryphon, said, “I proceeded by the Red Sea until I reached the extension of the Reed Sea which goes out from the Red Sea, and then I turned southward, until I reached the Gihon River....” The person in this account was already on the “Red Sea” and goes to the “extension” of it, which he calls the “Reed Sea" (Delta), and then to the Nile or “Gihon”. He is telling us in his day that the Red Sea was connected to the Nile by the “Reed Sea". The location of the “Gihon” River is a matter of academic debate, but Josephus (and many other Jewish writers) have it as the Nile River, “Geon runs through Egypt.” (Josephus was interpreting Genesis 2:13.) The worldwide changes that took place from the flood and the dividing of the earth, in Genesis 10:25 and I Chronicles 1:19, not only reshaped the earth, but the rivers within the continents. The ancient Targums, Pseudo-Jonathan and Jerusalem (Aramaic translations of the Pentateuch), both connect the Nile to the Red Sea/Yam Suph, “and the Gihon [Nile] had carried into the sea of Suph, and the sea of Suph bad cast upon its bank. But all the chariot horses of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his hosts (were coming) towards the Mouths of Hiratha, which are before the idol Zephon.”

square miles. The Exodus of Israel was about three months before the annual flood. The sea that Israel crossed was the result of an early flood of the Delta from the seventh plague, “[T]he hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.” (Exodus 9:24) Not only was this plague “very grievous”, but the worst that had ever hit Egypt, and it was in “all” the land. “[A]ll the land” of Egypt included from the city of Syene (Ezekiel 29:10), 600 miles south of Memphis. This seventh plague was more than hail; it also rained. “And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased....” (Exodus 9:33-34) In the Qur’an (7:133) it also said that one of the plagues that Moses called down on Egypt was a “flood”. The list of plagues in the Qur’an is shorter and in a different order than the Bible, but this “flood” could only have been caused by the rain and hail, and this plague is not mentioned by name with the others it does give, as the “Locusts”, “Lice”, “Frogs” and “Blood”.

It takes ten days for the flood-waters from Syene to reach the Delta; it would then take several more days for the Nile Valley, which also floods (two miles or more on both sides of the Nile), to drain back into the Nile and into the Delta. All this time ancient Lake Moeris, which would have also been flooded, and normally relieved the flood-waters of the Nile, would instead be dumping water into the Nile, making the flood worse. Ussher's chronology has the seventh plague happening on the 5th of Abid; the Israelites leave on the 15th of the same month.

          The Bible forgot the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid? I know of no verse that people are using to try and prove the Great Sphinx is in the Bible, and only one verse to try and prove the Great Pyramid is. Isaiah 19:19 "In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD." The argument goes something like this, that the Great Pyramid is at the "border" of Upper and Lower Egypt, yet also in the "midst" at the same time. The problem with this is that Isaiah who was a prophet was giving a prediction of a future event that had not yet happen in his days, "In that day shall there be", (in the future) an "altar" and a "pillar". But the Great Pyramid existed for centuries before the time of Isaiah.
         The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid are easily the most recognizable landmarks in Egypt, the Great Pyramid being the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World to have survived. But today we are told they are not found in the Bible? Many people in the Bible were in Egypt: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, the children of Israel, even Jesus as a baby was there with Mary and Joseph. We know from scriptures that the prophet Jeremiah was at Noph (Jeremiah 44:1, 46:13-14), which the Bible scholars locate just to the south of the Sphinx and great Pyramid. And the Bible names places in Egypt, but some how forgot its greatest landmarks???

         Migdol is found seven times in the Bible and Strong’s #4024, has it as “Migdol = tower”. It is translated “tower” three times in the Old Testament; the other four times it is left untranslated and simply given as “Migdol”, as it is found in the Exodus account (Exodus 14:2 and Numbers 33:7). Some believe Migdol could have been a fort, but the Bible told us Israel was avoiding war. The ancient Egyptian name for a pyramid was “Mir”; it was the Greeks who first started calling them “pyramids”, hundreds of years after the time of Moses and the Exodus. So the Hebrew Bible is not going to use a Greek name to describe them any more than the ancient Egyptians would use a Greek name to describe them. For the Jews it was Migdol, a tower; they were simply calling it by what it looked like to them, as we would say the Eiffel Tower. Pliny the elder (Roman author, first century AD), when talking about the pyramids of Egypt, said the same, on the “Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids".

Baal-zephon, Strong’s Concordance #1168 gives for “Baal” = Lord, and #6828 “zephon” = north, or “Lord of the north”. The word zephon, from Baal-zephon, some believe should be “hidden”, “destroyer", “destruction”, etc., but in the Old Testament this word zephon (Strong’s #H6828) is translated "north" 116 times, "northward" 24, "north side" 11, "northern" 1, and "north wind" 1, but never is it translated “hidden”, “destroyer", “destruction”, etc. Baal-zephon was the god of the Assyrians and Phoenicians, and was worshiped in Canaan. The children of Israel were familiar with Baal-zephon from their time in Canaan before they came to Egypt, and one would expect Israel to use a name they were familiar with. Just as the Egyptian god Amun was called by the Greeks, Zeus, and by the Romans, Jupiter, so the Sphinx was called Baal-zephon by the Jews.

       The name Baal-zephon is given three times in the Bible and all three are at the sea crossing. Josephus did not say that Baal-zephon was a city, as some believe, but only called it a “place". “[O]n the third day they came to a place called Beelzephon....” Legends of the Jews said it was a place with both an idol and a temple, “the great sanctuary of Baal-zephon was situated”. The Sphinx and its temple are located next to each other. Jewish sources say that Baal-zephon was an idol, “before the idol Zephon,” (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Exodus XIV, also Targum Onkelos, Exodus XIV. The Targums are in Aramaic and follow the first five books of the Bible, but add some Jewish traditions.) The Sphinx was not just a statue, but an Egyptian idol; the Egyptians offered up sacrifices to the Sphinx. The stele of the Sphinx (Dream Stele), records Pharaoh Thutmose IV of Egypt giving up offerings to it.

      Jewish sources say this idol was the only one left in Egypt when God destroyed the gods of Egypt (Numbers 33:4). Legends of the Jews says, “Of set purpose God had left Baalzephon uninjured, alone of all the Egyptian idols. He wanted the Egyptian people to think that this idol was possessed of exceeding might, which it exercised to prevent the Israelites from journeying on.” (Legends of the Jews, III, Pharaoh Pursues the Hebrews, also Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Exodus XIV.) This would also mean that Israel was back in Egypt at the time of the sea crossing, for all the other "Egyptian idols" had been destroyed except this one! The Sphinx would be the only possibility for Baal-zephon, for all believe it was standing when the children of Israel left Egypt! What other idol could it have been? These Jewish sources just quoted said the idol of Baal-zephon was the only one left standing. It was and is still there; we are left with very few possibilities to pick from. It could not have been some carry-around idol that was set back up, but of necessity it would have to have been very large, for it was used as a landmark for a nation.

Grateful acknowledgment to World Discovery
         http://www.worlddiscovery.co.uk

The cobra (Uraeus) was the symbol of northern Egypt. Pharaohs often wore both the vulture and the cobra on their headdress (as on the grave mask of King Tutankhamun) to show they were the rulers of the two lands, or Northern and Southern Egypt. The Egyptians called the Sphinx "Horus of the Horizon". However, on the upper forehead of the Sphinx is clearly seen the Uraeus or cobra (the symbol of the north) and it is made from the stone of the Sphinx itself. A two-foot limestone piece of the Sphinx’s cobra is now in the British Museum #1204. Since the Sphinx only had the cobra (Uraeus), as a permanent part of it, and therefore was a symbol of Northern Egypt, it was a clear sign to all that the Great Sphinx ruled the north “Lord of the north", and to the Hebrews, this was Baal-zephon!

The “Dream Stele” (18th Dynasty), the Papyrus of Ani (18th Dynasty), and the Papyrus of Sanehat (Sinuhit, 12th Dynasty) all talk of Kheraha or Kher-ahau (vowels are conjecture = Khrh), and place it at Old Cairo across from the Great Sphinx. Pi-ha-hiroth, is found four times in the Bible, and all are at Israel's sea crossing (Exodus 14:2, 9, Numbers 33:7-8). The first part, "Pe-hah", is believed to be Hebrew, and "hiroth", is believed to be Egyptian (Gesenius's Lexicon, online); it is pronounced “pē hah·khē·roth’” (Strong’s). Legends of the Jews said the Egyptian gods were connected to it, “on account of the idols set up there, it received the name Hahiroth” This and other Jewish books shows that the name is not always found with “Pe” on the front of it, but only with “Ha" (The) "hiroth” (Kheroth = Khrth)

But what of this Egyptian legend and their gods battling it out at the bottom of the sea? It is one of the many battles between the Egyptian gods Horus and Set (Seth). Pharaohs of Egypt oftentimes took on the names of the gods, and these conflicts between gods are sometimes looked upon as representations of struggles between kings and countries. All Pharaohs were associated with the god Horus, as the defenders of Egypt, and all pharaohs were given a “Horus name”. The god Seth, on the other hand, was the enemy of Horus, the god of the desert, chaos, storms, and the god of the foreigners. Originally Seth was considered a good god, but he became demonized during the time of the hated foreign Hyksos rulers (1620-1530 BC), because Seth was the only Egyptian god they worshiped. What follows is an account of this legend as given in the Chester Beatty Papyrus I.

“Thereupon Seth said to Horus: 'Come, let's both transform (ourselves) into hippopotamuses and submerge in the deep waters in the midst of the sea. Now as for the one who shall emerge within the span of three whole months, the office should not be awarded him.' Then they both submerged. And so Isis sat down and wept, saying: 'Seth has killed Horus, my son'…[The text goes on and has Isis, the mother of Horus, hurling a “harpoon” into the water to hit Seth, but by mistake it hits her son Horus, whom she brings up to the surface of the water; she then repeats this and hits Seth. She would have been expected to turn Seth over to her son, Horus, but instead lets him go free.]…Horus, son of Isis, became furious at his mother Isis and went out with his face as fierce as an Upper Egyptian panther's, having his cleaver of 16 deben-weight in his hand. He removed the head of his mother Isis…” (Chester Beatty Papyrus I, William Kelly Simpson, http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/horus_and_seth.htm

There are many variations of this account, sometimes called The Contending of Horus and Seth. Some accounts do not mention them being in the water, though most have them under the “sea”, “lake”, “Nile”, or “flooded” river. One gives the date of this event as the 26th of the month of Thoth, not the time of the Exodus by Israel, but the Egyptians did not add the so called “leap-day” to their calendar until 30 BC, when Augustus reformed the Egyptian calendar. Thus their months “wandered” through the year. Isis was the mother of Horus, and sister of Seth. (Some believe Seth was the brother of Horus, at any rate it was "all in the family". This battle has been called "sibling rivalry"!) Isis harpooned both Horus (representing the Egyptians) and Seth (representing foreigners, sometimes Nubians, Hyksos, or, as I believe, in this case, the Israelites), but Israel was not hurt by the Red Sea crossing. Perhaps this was the only way they could explain how Horus could lose, and Seth escape, blame it on Mom! The above account was to be for “three whole months”, but some have it for “three days”, or “many days", or no time at all is given. One of the earmarks of this legend is that it usually ends up with Isis having her head (in a few accounts her crown) taken off by Horus, which helps to differentiate it from the other battles that are recorded between Horus and Seth.

         It is certainly an odd battle, as they are not fighting with weapons, as was the norm in these legends, but rather having a contest to see who could stay down the longest. According to the rules, Horus would have lost, because even though it was an accidental harpooning by Isis, he was still the first one to the surface. Horus is not happy with this battle and takes off Isis' head, as he is infuriated that she has let Seth get away. In some accounts, Horus goes out to the desert and sulks. Seth meets up with him again later, but it is another one of their battles, and Seth would then represent another enemy. These gods of Horus and Seth go back to the beginning of Egyptian civilizations but “The myth in its present form is dated to the late New Kingdom period” (between the 16th and 11th century BC, Seth had not been demonized until the time of the Hyksos. Some say the composition was during the 18th Dynasty, some say 20th Dynasty, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Contendings_of_Horus_and_Seth) These battles between their gods were written to either teach a moral or preserve their history. The ancient Egyptians were telling us something by these accounts they recorded, and this one in particular fits with the sea crossing of Israel! (Some have thought perhaps it was the conquest of the Nile against the land or vice versa, but then the Nile god, Hapi, would have been involved.)
        There are different times when Seth takes on the form of a crocodile or hippopotamus to go into the river (he was the god of storms). However, there is no other time that Horus goes under the waters of the Nile or any other body of water. It was also extremely rare that he would lose a battle with Seth or anyone. But what is more interesting is where this underwater battle takes place, and it fits perfectly with the sea crossing as given in our book EXODUS. “According to the legend given in the Fourth Sallier Papyrus, the fight between Horus and Set…It was fought in or near the hall of the lords of Kher-aha [directly across from the Sphinx], i.e., near Heliopolis and in the presence of Isis, who seems to have tried to spare both her brother Set and her son Horus. For some reason Horus became enraged with his mother, and attacking her like a "leopard of the south," he cut off the head of Isis.” (Sallier, iv., p. 2; see Select Papyri, pl. cxlv., Legends of the Gods, The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations by E. A. Wallis Budge). As anyone can see, this quote of Mr. Wallis Budge was about this battle we have been talking about, as Horus “cut off the head of Isis".
       About half of those I read thought these battles, given with such imagery, were based upon struggles Egypt had with other nations. The rest believed it was truth or right against evil and darkness, but if that be so, then I am glad I am not the one who has to come up with a high moral for the "good" god (Horus) cutting off his own mother’s head! However, if as others believe, these represent the struggles between the ancient Egyptians and foreigners, then where in history do we have such an account of two nations meeting at the bottom of the sea, except it be Israel during the Red Sea crossing? And if it is not Israel, then who?
       This is certainly more likely to be an account of the sea crossing than that of the el-Arish Shrine, and in that account, the Egyptians win. Yet for years, both laymen and scholars have debated the possibility of the el-Arish Shrine being an Egyptian account of the sea crossing by Israel. This was mainly because of one place name, Pekharti. This account of Horus and Seth not only matches better the Exodus account, but takes place in a body of water that was either called the “Yam Suf”, or from ancient sources we find Israel crossing it, something that cannot be shown with the battle of the el-Arish Shrine. And the underwater battle of Horus and Seth takes place, not in front of one possible place name of Exodus 14:2, but all four! The Sphinx (Baal-zephon), Great Pyramid (Migdol), Kher-ahau (pē hah·khē·rōth') and the Lake of Rushes (Yam Suf). Quite a coincidence! Shall we throw all this away because we have tunnel vision and can only see the right side of the Delta? (Video, 30 min. = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJS_WVnfkG0h There is only one time Israel crossed the sea. Contact, gmmatheny@aol.com)

See video (8 min) below about the sea crossing and the four place names of Exodus 14:2.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, there were two other men who died that day. And both had broken the 8th commandment, “Thou shalt not steal”. Jesus took one to Heaven, but not the other. What made the difference? They both believed Christ existed, for they both talked to him, but only one of them trusted Christ for salvation. This was the one who recognized he was a sinner, and deserved the punishment of his crime, for he said, “we receive the due reward of our deeds….” He did not make excuses for his sins but looked to Jesus, the only one who could forgive him, and put his faith in Christ, and asked the Lord to save him. “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43) Say to Jesus, “Lord remember me, I want to come into your kingdom when I die. I ask you to save my soul, and please forgive all my sins. I want you to live your life in me.”

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

       After crossing the Yam Suph, they leave from the area of Old Cairo (Kheraha). Israel could not have gone but a few miles due south, because the Nile River was then flooded and would have barred their way.

       Traditions. Besides archeology and history, there are traditions to consider. In truth, traditions are not the most trustworthy sources, and may have been created simply to help out the local tourism industry. I once heard that a certain city in Europe claimed to have “All 17 graves” of the original 12 apostles! So, though I was not looking for any signs that said, “Moses slept here,” still, one would expect some traditions to have been passed down if we have the right route of the Exodus. There are more traditions for this route of the Exodus than all the other routes together. Yet, before I studied this, I had never heard of the Synagogue, Monastery, Mosques and the Arab traditions that all have Israel on this route in the Eastern Desert!

Three Muslim sites
in a row bear witness
to Moses being on this
route. There is no
other Mosque of
Moses in Egypt.

(Maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com)

ELIM “[F]ountains, which were in number twelve: they were rather a few moist places than springs, which not breaking out of the ground, nor running over, could not sufficiently water the trees. And when they dug into the sand….they found it to be useless, on account of its mud.” (Josephus. Antiquities III, 1, 3, & Legends of the Jews, The Awful Desert). The Bible said Elim had twelve wells, the Bedouins said there were, “12, plus one or minus one.” The site is over a mile square, with many of them being what they called “wet sand”, like Josephus who called them “moist places…”

Please see "Maps of Elim" at the top of page. If you use the zoom in feature you can count over 70 trees at this site, and 12 groups of palm trees, where water comes up through the ground. Sir Wilkinson had said that though one can find small trees out on the desert with no apparent source of water, it was not so when speaking about the palm tree. “I never saw or heard of any palms but near water; though in many vallies of the primitive mountains there are innumerable seyale, tamarisk, and other trees, the palm we never found but at the watering-places themselves.” (Sir Wilkinson, British Egyptologist, )

“Sinai” Peninsula? The classical writers (ancient Greek and Roman writers) called the peninsula “Arabia” or "Arabia Petraea". The name “Sinai” Peninsula came from the name Mount Sinai, and historically there is no record of either the traditional Mount Sinai or the Peninsula being called Sinai before the third century after Christ. There is, however, the clear statement of Josephus, who said that the Midian nation which Moses went to was "in the country of the Troglodytes" (Antiquities II, 11, 1-2). Troglodytes means "cave goers", and many people groups at different times lived in caves, but the "country" of the Troglodytes was in the Eastern Desert of Egypt! The classical writers (in whose time Josephus wrote, and he would have used this name as they did) have the land of Troglodytes on the African side of the Red Sea. Three of the classical writers have Troglodytes all the way up to the head of the Gulf of Suez on the west side (Diodorus. III, 15, 38-39. Strabo. XVI, 4, 4. Pliny the Elder. Natural History VI). Josephus never called Petra the land of Troglodytes, as some believe, not even when he gave its ancient name. “And when he came to a place which the Arabians esteem their metropolis, which was formerly called Arce [not Troglodytes], but has now the name of Petra, at the place, which was encompassed with high mountains...” (Josephus, Antiquities IV, 2, 7). We know from the Bible that Moses went to the land of Midian, and this can be traced to "the country of the Troglodytes" through both Josephus (first century) and Pliny the Elder (first century). “Troglodytice comes next, called in former times Midoe....” (Pliny. Natural History, book VI, ch. 34) Pliny, writing in Latin, calls the ancestors of the Troglodytes “Midoe”; Josephus, writing in the Greek language, spells the name of Midian as “Madiau” (Antiquities I, 15, 1). Josephus said that the children of Midian became two nations for they “took possession of Troglodytis, and the country of Arabia the Happy….” (Josephus. Antiquities, I, 15, 1) Josephus, when giving the account of Moses meeting the daughters of Jethro (the priest of Midian, Exodus 3:1) said, “These virgins, who took care of their father’s flocks, which sort of work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the country of the Troglodytes…” (Josephus. Antiquities II, 11, 2). The apostle Paul located "mount Sinai in Arabia" (Galatians 4:25, not Saudi Arabia). The classical writers also call the Eastern Desert of Egypt "Arabia" (Herodotus Book II. Strabo Geography, Book XVII, 30) and this name can still be found on modern maps!

A search was made to find 18 encampments of Israel from leaving Rameses (the land, not the city) till Mount Seir; one we could not find, seven are given as possible, but ten are beyond coincidence (Elim, Red Sea (the second time), Dophkah, Alush, Taberah, Kirbroth-hattaavah, Hazeroth, Rithmah, Rimmon-parez and Kehelathah). A couple of these place names for the route of the Exodus could have been found in most any desert in the Middle East. One might be able to find two of these names together in the order given in the Bible, and who knows, even on a logical path that would lead to one of the sites believed to be Mount Sinai. But finding a place named “Knocking” (Dophkah), or a place to “knead bread” (Alush), or “pomegranate of the breach” (Rimmonparez)? These names are so rare that the only place they are given in the Hebrew Scriptures is for the route of the Exodus and the only time they are found in Egypt is on this route. And the more rare the place name, the better the confirmation that it is the right route! The encampments of the children of Israel are found in their proper order, with a reasonable distance* traveled between them, an accessible route for a multitude with “wagons” (Numbers 7:3-8), a logical direction, and even falling on a known ancient route! (I was not zigzagging my way through the desert trying to pick up place names.) I do not see how anyone could claim that all these sites are only a coincidence, especially when taken together. Gebel Gharib must be Mount Sinai, as the route has led us up to and away from this site and matching up with the key distance of the “eleven days” to Kadesh-barnea from Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 1:2). (*The longest day's journey we found was 18 miles. Some believe that the flocks of Israel could only travel about 5 or 6 miles a day, but western sheep cannot be compared to the more sturdy Bedouin sheep of the Middle East. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) website on Bedouin flocks, “Awassi sheep”, said, "While 16 km (10 miles) is considered to be a fair rate of progress when migrating to more distant pastures, if pressed, flocks may be driven for as much as 35 km (21.75 miles) in 24 hours (Williamson, 1949)." http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/aj003e/AJ003E05.htm#fg21)

       Mount Gharib, from the east.
          It stands in the Eastern Desert of Egypt,120 miles south of Suez, and 16 miles west of the Gulf of Suez.

          Mount Sinai was the tallest mountain in the area. “For, having gone up into the highest and most sacred mountain in that district in accordance with the divine commands, a mountain which was very difficult of access and very hard to ascend....” (Philo, first century, On The Life Of Moses, 2:70) “[T]aking his station at the mountain called Sinai, he drove his flocks thither to feed them. Now this is the highest of all the mountains there about....and is not only very difficult to be ascended by men, on account of its vast altitude, but because of the sharpness of its precipices also.” (Josephus, first century, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3, Ch. 5:3) British archaeologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson climbed Mount Gharib in 1823, and said, “During our stay here we ascended the mountain, which, from its steepness, and the frequent occurrence of ravines, is rather a fatiguing undertaking.” It has been argued that Moses at 80 years of age could not have climbed a steep, high mountain, but the Bible says, “when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” (Deuteronomy 34:7)

The encampment of Kibroth-hattaavah “graves of lust,” and Taberah are one and the same place, but not at the same time, and it can be shown that at both times the “fire” of God burned to death (cremated) multitudes who were there (Numbers 11:1, Psalm 78:20-21). This is the only time during Israel's 40 years of wandering that the Bible tells us of a mass burial. The Egyptians, Arabs and Jews did not cremate; the Romans and Greeks who at one time ruled Egypt and sometimes cremated, had no known towns within 60 miles of these catacombs. The Bedouins call this site Wadi El Khawaja, "Valley of the Foreigner".

“We went into those where the doors were the least obstructed by the sand or decayed rock, and found them to be catacombs; they are well cut, and vary from about eighty to twenty four feet, by five…We sought in vain for inscriptions or hieroglyphics; our curiosity was only rewarded by finding the scattered fragments of vases, bitumen, charcoal, and cloth. It is evident that the bodies were burnt, and the ashes…deposited in the vases, of which innumerable broken remains are seen in every direction; they are earthenware, mostly red, and heart-shaped…” (Sir Wilkinson. Royal Geographical Society, 1832, p.34).

The remains from cremation are considerably smaller than the bodies they come from. Sir Wilkinson said the opening of the vases was “about three inches”, allowing for a number of cremated remains to have been deposited in each vase. Multiply this by the tens of thousands of vases* and it would have required a city of foreigners (Greeks or Romans) larger than ever existed at any place in the Eastern Desert! (*From the 30 catacombs found to date, the vases would have been made at location.) Greeks and Romans did not always cremate, and at no other location in the Eastern Desert have cremated remains been found, even at sites known to have been home to Greeks and Romans! I received a letter (e-mail, Jan 12, 2011) from an archaeologist at the British Museum who said, “However, cremation in the Eastern Desert seems to be unknown to archaeologists who work in that region. At present, it seems, the site remains to be explained.”

In Alexandria, Egypt, other groups of catacombs were found for both Greeks and Romans, also with cremated remains. However, their ashes were placed in a different shape of vase than the ones found at this site. They were also painted and many inscribed, not only with the name of the person, but also the date he died. These things: the lack of inscriptions and the plain unpainted vases, point to a mass funeral, as the Graves of Lust witnessed. For had this burial site been used for years, then certainly these vases would have been decorated as were those found at other sites! Israel had the time to make these catacombs as they were at Kibroth-hattaavah for at least 30 days (Numbers 11:20).

Normally a catacomb will have only a couple of entrances, and is lengthened as the need for more room is required. But in order to dig out a catacomb, because of the distance between the walls (about six feet), only two or three men at a time could work the front of it. If someone had the manpower and wanted to make many catacombs in a short time (as required for the "graves of lust") he could split the men up into groups, with each group digging out a different catacomb. Here we have 30 entrances for 30 short catacombs, again pointing to them all being made at the same time.

Monastery of Paul, the site of the "Pool of Miriam"
The "Pool of Miriam", where tradition says the sister of Moses washed at the time of the Exodus. This site is located less than seven miles from the catacombs (Kibroth-hattaavah), and the Bible has Israel’s next encampment after the Graves of Lust at Hazeroth (Numbers 33:17), where Miriam was struck with leprosy. It is of interest that this tradition from the Monastery of St. Paul (also from ancient Arab writers) makes no mention of anyone else in the

Author with monk from the Monastery of St. Paul

camp of Israel doing this, not even Moses or Joshua or Aaron, but only Miriam, the one person who was struck with leprosy at Hazeroth (Numbers 12:15), which was the next encampment after the Graves of Lust. And according to the Bible (Leviticus 14:9), she would have been required to wash both her clothes and herself (“Pool of Miriam”) before re-entering the camp.

           With our book being 386 pages long this web page could only touch on some of the high points. But there are many more important encampments and locations to be found in our book EXODUS. The meanings of many of these place names from the route of the Exodus are anything but vague, and in fact, some of the names on the Exodus route border on the bizarre, and if found would only help to confirm the route.
* Encampments such as Alush (means a place to make bread, and the Jews tell us it was a city with many men), Dophkah (Knocking), Rimmon-parez (“pomegranate of the breach”) and many other locations, found in their proper order, with a reasonable distance traveled between them, an accessible route for a multitude with “wagons” (Numbers 7:3-8), a logical direction and even falling on a known ancient route! (I was not zigzagging my way through the desert trying to pick up place names.) I do not see how anyone could claim hat all these sites are only a coincidence, especially when taken together.
* Not only were there two Kadeshes and two Mount Seirs (see our blog) but there were also two fields of Edom. This becomes important because Judges 5:1-5 has both Seir and Edom close to Mount Sinai.
* An ancient Egyptian inscription that appears to be of the Exodus and it mentions the Nile being flooded three times but it was not the annual flood (this is not in reference to the Tempest Stele).
* Why “Etham” was on both sides of the sea Israel crossed (new information).
* Information on the second encampment of Succoth, that no one else has.
* One chapter on the “11 days to Kadesh” and a error that just about everyone is making on this.
* Possible site for the city of Rammes.
* From the Bible and ancient texts we can find the Midianites, Amalekites and Ishmaelites in the Eastern Desert.
* The wilderness of “Sinai” (in its Arabic name) is also found in the Eastern Desert.

                                              (All quotations that were italicized, Bold print or underlined, reflect my emphasis.)
            Glory to God through His Son Jesus Christ

                                                       See VIDEO (12 min.) below, on Mount Sinai and route of the Exodus.

See 2 min. video of our book 'EXODUS' THE ROUTE * SEA CROSSING * GOD’S MOUNTAIN

YES! They Started From The Wrong Location!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sX8Pnh-CD0&feature=relate

          Thoroughly Researched, Thoroughly Fascinating
     "EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain challenges the old theories about the route by which Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. You'll be amused and enlightened as Matheny takes down some of the sacred cows of earlier authors, as effectively as Moses destroyed the golden calf in the wilderness. Wordsmith from GA

                        Parting the waters at the Pyramids
        In this fascinating new book G.M. Matheny makes a compelling case for the location of where Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. And a couple of very important landmarks still standing in Egypt today may mark where it all began. Those two landmarks being the Pyramids and the Sphinx located at Giza in Egypt. And the Bible itself may just in fact mention both of them.
John Argubright, author of Bible Believer's Archaeology and creator of BibleHistory.net

                                          God's Route
      If you think you know the story, read and you will find the reality of the Exodus route is even more tantalizing when the true route is revealed. Garry through an amazing amount of research provides new evidence on the sea crossing, routes taken, stops and encampments in his book "Exodus" that some will envy and others will use as a treasure map...   R. Brinks

Sold on AMAZON.COM, also on Kindle, and TOWER BOOKS, http://www.tower.com/exodus-g-m-matheny-paperback/wapi/118045726 $16.37, 386 pages
Copyright © 2011 by Garry M. Matheny
All Rights Reserved. ISBN 9781613792971
Fully illustrated with over 50 maps and pictures.
Published by: Xulon Press, http://www.xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=9781613792971
(It is not necessary to buy the book "The Quest for the Location of the Red Sea Crossing", as it has been updated and included in our book "EXODUS")