One of the important events in the book of Exodus, which describes the departure of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, is the parting of the Red Sea. Chased by the Pharaoh’s army, the Israelites reach the Red Sea and Moses causes the water to part. Once the Israelites cross to safety, the water comes back and drowns the Pharaoh’s army.
There have been countless under water archaeological expeditions looking for evidence of drowned Egyptian armies, but all unsuccessful. In Simcha Jacobovici’s controversial documentary The Exodus Decoded, there was an attempt to find the location of the place where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, a scene immortalized in Cecil B. DeMille‘s The Ten Commandments. After looking at a hieroglyphic which he says depicts the parting of the sea he concludes that Red Sea is not the Red Sea we know, but a small lake known as the El Balah Lake.
According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the story of Exodus is a myth. No, Dr. Hawass is not an ASI official who makes judgement on religious scriptures without doing any work, but Egypt’s chief archaeologist who has been conducting excavations in the Sinai region. So far they have not found any evidence for the accounts in the Hebrew scriptures and there has been only one find which suggests the existence of Israel.
Then, Egypt is the supermarket of ancient history and tomorrow there could be a discovery which could change the status of Exodus from myth to history.
Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, the head of the excavation, seemed to sense that such a conclusion might disappoint some. People always have doubts until something is discovered to confirm it, he noted.
Then he offered another theory, one that he said he drew from modern Egypt.
“A pharaoh drowned and a whole army was killed,” he said recounting the portion of the story that holds that God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape, then closed the waters on the pursuing army.
“This is a crisis for Egypt, and Egyptians do not document their crises.” [Did the Red Sea Part? No Evidence, Archaeologists Say]
