The Sinai Desert Peninsula is a part of Egypt connecting the Continents of Asia and Africa. Surrounded by the Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Israel desert.
The most interesting sight is the west southern part of the Sinai desert. It is mountaineous with its highest peak St. Katherine Mt. 2644 m. Here, below the craggy outcrops, St Katherine's Monastery sits beneath the mountain where a 4th century tradition says Moses received the Ten Commandments.
So begins one of the Bible's most memorable sagas, the 40-year wanderings of Moses and the Israelites through the vast and barren prison of Sinai desert before entering the holy land. No story has done more to put Sinai on the map than Exodus, and for many, a visit to the land where manna fell from heaven and Moses received the Ten Commandments is nothing short of a pilgrimage.
Most of the places mentioned in Exodus are unknown. Where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, where they first set foot in Israel Sinai Desert, and even the location of biblical Mt. Sinai itself is the subject of relentless argument among scholars, historians, and theologians. Exodus may have put the Sinai desert on the map, but putting Exodus back into a geographical context is an unfinished labor that often involves sifting through desert sands and Old Testament manuscripts for minute clues.
There are three main theories as to the route the Israelites used when they crossed into Sinai. The first has Moses and his tribes moving out of Egypt past modern-day Suez, then crossing into Sinai desert near Ain Musa. The second places the crossing further south, near a place called Ain Sukna. The third and most popular theory focuses on the north and the Nile Delta region. This region is far richer in pastures, water, and manna-producing tamarisk trees, and it also would have been the safest: the southern routes would have taken the Israelites dangerously close to Pharaoh's turquoise and copper mines, which were heavily garrisoned.
However the Israelites entered the Sinai desert, the mystery of where they roamed once they got there is even greater. Central to the story of the wanderings is the location of Mt. Sinai in Israel, the sacred height where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as recorded in the Old Testament.
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