The location of Mount Sinai
There are many proposed locations for Mount Sinai. The Bible does not state with clarity as to its location but does give many characteristics of the location. Several criteria must be met to be a good candidate for Mount Sinai.
When Moses fled from the Pharaoh in Egypt to Midian at 40 years of age he met and stayed with the priest of Midian who’s name was Jethro or Ruel. He married Jethro’s daughter whose name was Zipporah. Exodus 2:21
Few dispute the location of Midian in the Arabian Peninsula because Abraham sent his son Midian eastward, when he lived in the Negev, which is southern Israel. Genesis 25:4
There are two major routes from Egypt going east. The Northern Route and the Southern route. The Northern route goes along the mediterranean coast. The southern route goes from the northern most tip of the gulf of Suez to the northernmost tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, which is called Ayla or Eilat. This route is called Aqaba of Ayla which means the pass of Ayla. The pass goes from the city of Ayla along the wadi or dry wash of Yutim up into the mountains of Arabia, which being higher than those of the Sinai Peninsula have been called the Wall before Egypt or Shur.
When Moses first left Egypt, he no doubt took the southern Route from Suez through the Mitlah pass directly across the Sinai peninsula to escape from Pharaoh, who sought to kill him, since the northern route is heavily guarded by Egypt against armies from the Levant. A third route simply follows the coastline but stays within the influence of the ships of Egypt so is ruled out as a reasonable escape route and there is no biblical indication that Moses had a boat.
The southern route would take him out of Egyptian influence but most probably along a known trade route from Egypt. One clear indication of the location of the southern route are the later Ramses III Egyptian Hieroglyph cartouche, which are found on the current Egyptian/Israeli border at the headwaters of the Roded wadi, another is found in Tayma, Saudi Arabia. This is the most likely route Moses took. Tayma is an oasis in Saudi Arabia and has been populated for more than 4000 years but recently has been restored in the Islamic style. It is believed to be the oasis of Madyan where the Bible shows Moses met Ziporah his wife, while she was watering her father's flock. Exodus 2:15-21 Tayma is established as a Midianite oasis (Ghabban-Robin al-Zaydaniya 1 inscription) on the route from Egypt (Ramses III cartouche) indicating that the Tayma oasis the is most likely the well used by Zipporah.
After some 40 additional years with Jethro and Zipporah, while Moses was pasturing his father-in-law’s sheep in the western wilderness Exodus 3:1, he found the burning bush and received his mandate from God to liberate the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. The Mountain which is called Horeb or Mount Sinai in the Bible was believed by Charles Beke to be an active volcano at the time of Moses and was active (personal communication from Colin Humphreys) in Moses’ time frame. It has a huge water reservoir on top, which would have been the source of water for the Rock of Horeb and on the east end a volcanic cone. Its current name is Jebel Tedhra جبال تذرع which means the mount of Invocation. The basin at the top of Mount Tedhra is white and very flat. In the heat of the day when it was moist as well, the elders were seeing the heavens refracted from the flat surface mirage the color of sapphire on white לבנת and the eternal power and Divine nature of God demonstrated by the active volcano as God literally melted נזלו mount Sinai before their very eyes. Judges 5:5 . That should have satisfied even the most skeptical elder as well as ourselves, unless one insists upon supernatural signs for faith. Romans 1:20 Vulcanism was known at this time Job 28:5 so the elders had to have seen beyond the geology and perceived God’s spiritual presence.
Hebrew gives cardinal directions based on a person looking eastward so behind the person is West. אהר המדבר would then be in the wilderness about 85 miles west of Tayma. Charles Beke in 1873 proposed the biblical Sinai to be an active volcano, because there was fire on top with smoke and tremors and loud sounds in Genesis 19:18. When Moses decided to return to Egypt he went to his father in law and then returned to Sinai where he met with his brother on the route back to Egypt. Exodus 4:27 This alternative route goes toward the gulf of Aqaba and then north which explains why the Children of Israel having crossed the red sea at Pihahiroth went to Mara, Elim, and then the Red Sea again along this same route which Aaron and Moses took in their return trip to Egypt.
Although the first two trips did not part the red sea, the Exodus left Egypt on the Full Moon 15th of Aviv and would have arrived at Ayla 13 days later on the New Moon which produces both high and low tides and accompanied by the wind set down shows us how the Lord provided for his children to cross the tidal flats on dry ground and drowned the Egyptian army shortly thereafter. The Evrona playa would have retained it’s water which accounts for the wall to the north and the Red Sea would be the wall on the right so the Egyptians were unable to surround the Israelis and had to pursue them instead. Remembering that David’s men were a wall of protection for Nabal’s servants while they were grazing Nabal’s sheep helps us understand what was meant by the the walls of water that protected the Israelites at the crossing. The times of the exodus celebration and the times of the high and low tides gives us a time line from Ismailia to Taba Airport of thirteen days and just over 200 miles. From Ayla to Horeb would take another 30 days.
One characteristic which is not met by this location without a reliable camel is the description of Horeb being an 11 days journey to Mount Seir on the road to Kadesh Barnea Deuteronomy. 1:2 that’s 20 miles a day by the way the crow flies so longer by the path.
There needs to be a cave (of Elijah) good pasture (several sheep pens attest to this) the burning bush may have been related to volcanic activity.
Regarding the number of Israelites in the census there were 20,000 males in the Levite tribe and 22,273 first born males 2 months old and above in the remainder of tribes. Numbers 3:43. The average number of males in the levite family was three. (Same Chapter) Since males approximate females there would be 6 expected in the average family making 20,000 x 2 + 22,273 X 6 = 177,638 . A very few families would have only females like 1.5% and some families wouldn’t have been complete due to age so somewhat less than 177,000 people in the Exodus. A demo,grapher could clean that up a bit but infant mortality was high in those days as noted by not counting infants under two months, so 6 seems reasonable.
This number is confirmed in Joshua chapter 4 when 40,000 armed men passed over the Jordan half of the people were men and half of the men were armed for war since about half would be 20 years old to 60 years old or 160,000 total Israelites near 177,000 total by headcount.
It is pure speculation on my part but what remains to be seen is reviewing the petroglyphs in the protected enclosure south of Mount Tedhra for paleohebrew to confirm this location as Mount Sinai. If any epigrapher is interested in doing so please drop me a line and allow us to accompany them.