This Wednesday, we mark the Seventh Day of Passover, commemorating one of the most dramatic moments in the biblical story of our people – the crossing of the Red Sea. In synagogues around the world, congregations rise to recite Shirat Ha’yam, the Song of the Sea.
We know the precise date of this event. We do not, however, know its exact location. Over the years, scholars have proposed possible sites for the crossing. Yet one place fits the biblical description better than any other. This is due to the topographical structure of the Red Sea seabed and the surprising archaeological discoveries of Pharaoh’s chariots.
In his book Science in the Weekly Torah Parsha, Dr. Yehoshua Meron surveys the leading theories and reaches a striking conclusion: the crossing took place near the shoreline of Nuweiba, on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, about 60 km south of Eilat.
The Torah states: “The children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children” (Exodus 12:37). When women and children are included, the number likely reaches two to three million people.
Where could such a multitude possibly camp and still be described as having “encamped by the sea?"
The slopes of the Sinai Desert mountains descending toward the Gulf of Eilat are extremely steep, sometimes reaching all the way to the Red Sea. Only along the beaches of Nuweiba is there any flat terrain suitable for use.
When the Sinai Desert was under Israeli control, before the peace agreement with Egypt, I was a young pilot. The air force had two flight paths above the coastline there: one at an altitude of 1,200 feet, and one at 4,000 feet. Only from the higher route could I see from the cockpit the entire “tongue” of land. This is the only place along the Sinai coast where two million people could potentially camp.
Torah's precise description of Israelite position
The Torah is unusually precise about the Israelites’ position: “They encamped before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon” (14:2). Rashi explains that Pi Hahiroth refers to two high rock walls with a narrow passage between them, “the mouth of the rocks.”
The towering rock walls still convey Pharaoh’s words: “The wilderness has closed in on them.” Trapped between sheer mountains on both sides, the sea directly ahead, and the approaching Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites stood with nowhere left to go. Even today, the cliffs on both sides of Wadi Watir create a powerful sense of enclosure. We can travel there and see it with our own eyes (although there is a travel warning for Israeli visitors).
The average depth of the Gulf of Eilat is about 900 meters. Directly opposite Nuweiba – and only there – lies a remarkable underwater ridge. It is the submerged seaward continuation of a land-based delta, extending beneath the surface of the sea.
At its shallowest point, the ridge rises to approximately 33 meters below sea level. It stretches for about 18 km. and is roughly 600 meters wide, running underwater from the shoreline of Nuweiba toward the coast of Saudi Arabia.
On a topographic map, it appears like a submerged land bridge.
The Torah records: “The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land” (14:21).
Some researchers have proposed that this description may reflect a large-scale natural event, possibly a distant volcanic eruption in the Indian Ocean, that generated powerful tsunami waves. Tsunamis follow the rules of physics, forming long, smooth waves that undulate in a sinusoidal shape.
When massive volumes of water are displaced elsewhere, sea levels can drop sharply in distant regions like the Red Sea. If the water here fell by more than 34 meters, only this ridge would have emerged above the sea level, creating a temporary corridor.
It’s like the tiny tidal islands of Mont-Saint-Michel on Normandy’s coast in northern France, and St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, England. Every day at low tide, a narrow causeway appears, and we can walk across to the island. With the returning tide, the sea quietly reclaims the passage until the way itself vanishes beneath the water.
Such a scenario could explain the verse: “The children of Israel went into the sea on dry land” (14:29).
Once the Israelites had crossed, the water would have rushed back as the sea returned to its natural level. At that very moment, the Egyptian forces would still have been on the exposed seabed, and the returning waters swept over them and their chariots, as described in the Torah: “And the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (14:27).
Well, if this were a natural phenomenon, one may ask what the miracle is.
It lies in the timing. It is not natural that a fleeing nation should arrive at the exact point where a submerged ridge lies hidden beneath the sea. It is not natural that they should enter the water at the precise moment when distant seismic events cause a sudden drop in sea level.
It is not natural that the waters should return only after the last Israelite has reached safety. The wonder of the event is found in the perfect orchestration of these “natural” forces into a single, impossible moment.
The Torah adds a vivid detail: “He removed the wheels of their chariots and made them drive with difficulty” (14:25).
About 30 years ago, American researcher Ron Wyatt reported discovering what he believed were chariot components of Pharaoh’s army. He and a team of divers systematically swept the seabed off the coast of Nuweiba, moving back and forth in carefully measured lines with detection equipment.
About 2.5 km offshore, their instruments finally signaled a find. A wheel-shaped object encrusted with coral. Later, they found what were thought to be additional wheels buried on the seabed, along with axles and structural parts.
Among the reported finds were also wheels said to be coated in gold, which coral does not adhere to.
He told me that he had given the first object to an Egyptologist from Cairo University for examination, who identified it as belonging to the Nineteenth Dynasty. The Pharaoh in the Torah is believed to be Ramesses II, who was a member of this dynasty.
Wyatt also said he found bones on the seabed, coated in coral. He sent it to Stockholm University for histological testing, without identifying its origin. The laboratory concluded that the samples were human and equine bones. As written in the Torah: “The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea” (15:1). The estimated age is approximately 3,300 years, corresponding to the traditional time frame of the Exodus.
Wyatt and Bill Fry returned to the site years later with more advanced detectors capable of locating objects buried beneath two meters of sediment. They reported discovering additional metallic components, including chariot axles, as depicted in ancient Egyptian tomb reliefs.
They uncovered an unusual structure, and as the corals were cleared, what they said were two golden wheels connected on a single axle suddenly appeared, catching the light like a secret revealed after millennia.
Replicas and original photographs of the objects are on display at the Wyatt Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.
Supporters of this theory also point to two granite pillars found on opposite shores of the Gulf of Eilat. One stands near Nuweiba itself, today placed beside the coastal road.
A matching pillar was reportedly found on the Saudi shore. Hebrew inscriptions on that pillar included the Hebrew words “Pharaoh,” “Moses,” “water,” “Egypt,” “died,” “Edom,” and “Solomon.” In the 1980s, the site was closed, and the pillar was reportedly removed by Saudi authorities.
Meron suggests that these monuments were erected by King Solomon, referring to the verse: “Then Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and to Eloth, on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom” (II Chronicles 8:17).
It is possible that during the time of the kings, the exact location of the Red Sea crossing was known. As written in the Bible: “On that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt” (Isaiah 19:19).
The Sinai mountains, the Eilat gulf shoreline, and the hidden ridge beneath the waters seem to echo the ancient words of the Torah. For generations, some historians have claimed that the Exodus story was only a later literary creation. Yet the geography, the seabed, and the mysterious remains discovered there suggest something very different: That our Torah is true!
And every year, when Shirat Ha’yam is sung, it reminds us that the Torah is not merely a story told about history. It is history remembered.
The author is the blogger of JewishTraveler.co.il