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| Jabal al-Lawz. The dark color at the top of the mountain is not from shadow but the color of the soil and rock. |
I think that it is almost universally recognized that the mountain known today as Mt. Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula is not the Mt. Sinai/Mt. Horeb of the Old Testament that Moses ascended to speak with the Lord and received the tablets containing the Ten Commandments.
One of the theories concerning the true location of Mt. Sinai is that identifying it with the mountain called Jabal al-Lawz located in Saudi Arabia, in the area that would have been called Midian at the time of the Exodus. Under this theory, the crossing of the Red Sea occurred across the Gulf of Aqaba at a location roughly parallel to Jabal al-Lawz; specifically at Nuweiba Beach. This claim is bolstered by the presence of unusual coral formations on the sea floor that appear to have grown around bronze age chariot wheels. Similar to this theory is one that puts the crossing at the Straits of Tiran at the very bottom of the Sinai Peninsula, but likewise maintains that Jabal al-Lawz is Mt. Sinai. The video below presents a compelling case for the Nuweiba Beach/Jabal al-Lawz hypothesis, in my opinion, and is the one that most shaped my views on the subject.
Conversely, the majority of scholars have seized on the fact that the existing Hebrew texts do not say that the crossing was of the Red Sea, but instead uses a name that translates as Reed Sea. Apparently we get the Red Sea translation from the Septuagint in which the body of water crossed by Israel is identified as the Red Sea. In any event, scholars believe, based on the use of the name "Reed Sea", that the crossing was at one of several lakes that historically ran on a line along the junction between the Nile Delta and the Sinai Peninsula. (See, e.g., this article). Based on this, scholars have looked for a mountain in the northern Sinai that might fit Mt. Sinai/Horeb. A short while ago, I came across a couple short videos that discuss this theory (crossing the Reed Sea) and which are set out below:
Under this theory, the location of the biblical Mt. Sinai is Gebel Khashm et-Tarif which is still on the Sinai Peninsula, but near to the top of the Gulf of Aqaba providing ready access to Midian. The latter fact is important because Moses had fled to Midian from Egypt, his father-in-law dwelled there, and Moses actually met with his father-in-law during the time Israel was in the desert.
The primary problem I had with the Reed Sea and Khashm et-Tarif theory is that one of the important points emphasized again and again was that, according to the scholar, the Hebrews could not have traveled more than about 6.5 miles per day (!) and, consequently, could not have made it to the Gulf of Aqaba in the time allotted.
Give me a break! A healthy person should be able to walk 6.5 miles in just 2 hours. Moreover, I remembered from both school and Sunday school that the pioneers crossing the plains with oxen pulling their wagons (oxen are notoriously slow) could make 15 miles on average, and 20 miles a day on a good day. Some of the Mormon pioneers also came completely on foot, pushing handcarts that contained their supplies and meager possessions. Not delayed by oxen or herding cattle with them, these pioneers moved even faster, ten to twenty-eight miles each day completely on foot. Taken together with the fact that the Exodus indicated that at times they were traveling day and night, 25 to 30 miles per day for the forced march portion seems reasonable.
It is also important to note that the Israelites were not striking out cross country (at least not initially) but followed well-established roads. In fact, the Exodus account mentions that Moses was instructed to not take a northern route that would cross territory held by the Philistines, but instead was told to go via "the way of the wilderness of the Red sea". (Exodus 13:17-18). This, I believe, was meant to be a proper name denoting the trading route that ran between Egypt and Midian and cut across the middle of the Sinai.
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