Mount sinai where is it

But in actuality, the society now claims, Mount Sinai, one of the most sacred places in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions, is Jabal Maqla, which lies in the Jabal al-Lawz mountain range in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Jabal Maqla, has blackened peaks as if scorched by the sun or fire, and lies near Nuweiba Beach, where scientists have found land paths underneath the water, where God would have parted the waters for Moses and the Israelites.

Though they were followed by Egyptians in chariots, when the Israelites reached land on the other side of the water, the sea consumed the Egyptians. A chariot-like shape was found in coral in the area, according to Swedish scientist Dr. Lennart Moller, who noted to the outlet that the metal and wood had long ago disintegrated.

On the way from the Beach to the possible Mt. Sinai is a large, split rock with signs of water erosion, despite being in the midst of a desert. The experts also discovered a site which appeared to be an altar near the base of the mountain, akin to the altar Moses is said to have built at the foot of Mount Sinai from uncut stones.

Also nearby is a graveyard — which Mauro theorizes is the site where the worshippers of the golden calf were struck down by Moses for idolatry. That leaves us with Jebel Musa, whose location rests solely on a Christian tradition going back to the fourth century CE.

Should we accept that for the most important and most sacred mountain in our history? Unfortunately there is no evidence of any early Jewish visitors to the site.

Benjamin Metudela traveled through Egypt and Israel in the late 12th century, but crossed between them by sea. Three hundred years later, Rabbi Ovadiah from Bartenura traveled from Italy to Palestine and extensively throughout Israel, but he did not visit the Sinai. Two famous archeologists, Leonard Woolley and T. Lawrence, were commissioned to explore the Negev-Sinai for the Palestine Exploration Fund in , and although their remit was "to follow the route of the Israelites in the Wilderness of Zin," they failed to find any trace of the wanderings of the Children of Israel.

They found nothing that could be dated to that early period and, as Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia later wrote to a friend, "not a sign or a smell of Israelites wandering about here We are transforming a hillfort of the Amorites into a Byzantine monastery, sounds almost impious doesn't it?

But it does seem that both the route of the Exodus and the site of Mt. Sinai are elusive. So, for the moment, we have to conclude that Mt. Sinai remains more in the mind than on the ground, and will do so until such time as excavations can prove it to be at Jebel Musa, one way or another. Only if something positive came out of that could we say with confidence to our sages: This is the site of Mt.

Sinai and the giving of the Torah, which you insist is central to the festival of Shavuot. Until such time as archeologists can say that, Mt. Sinai must remain in the mind, rather than on the ground. The writer is a fellow of the W. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem. Subscribe for our daily newsletter. Hot Opinion. Most Read. Reporters' Tweets. About Us.

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