01x25 - Where Is Mount Sinai?

[bunniefuu]

[music]

I'm going on an adventure.

There's only one way to figure it all out.

Unzip the archeology. Make it naked.

[music]

Ron? You've got the maps?

Yes, I have the maps.

The mission is to find Mount Sinai.

Look at the map. Here's the path, right:

one main road, two central routes.

[SIMCHA] For hundreds of years,

adventurers have been searching for the real Mount Sinai.

The Holy Mountain where Moses led his followers...

...at the time of the Exodus after escaping from sl*very in Egypt.

It was on Mount Sinai that according to the Bible,

Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

The sacred laws the Israelites would take with them...

...to the Promised Land.

The Bible says that for one year,

hundreds of thousands of Israelites...

...and other followers of Moses...

...camped at the base of the Holy Mountain.

It describes Sinai in detail,

providing valuable clues for any modern day explorer to follow.

Why then has the mountain been so difficult to locate?

Well, quite simply,

people haven't put all the available clues together.

That's the other candidate for Mount Sinai right?

[SIMCHA] Until now.

Okay let's go.

[SIMCHA] We've put together the ultimate Sinai search Posse.

Taking a systematic and logical approach to the Biblical text,

we can finally begin the ultimate quest for the real Mount Sinai.

[SIMCHA] Okay so here's the thing.

If you're going to search for Mount Sinai,

you got to go where everybody goes:

the Monastery of Santa Katarina on the Southern Sinai.

It's worth checking out because that's where everybody goes.

Popes, Presidents. They go to Santa Katarina.

A kind of Mount Sinai Tourist Trap.

[SIMCHA] Santa Katarina is a third century Christian Monastery,

built under the shadow...

...of what many people believe to be Mount Sinai.

The bible says that God appeared to Moses...

...at the foot of Mount Sinai...

...and spoke to him from a burning bush.

You look inside the Katarina Monasterypand you find one big bush.

Katarina is a high mountain in the South Sinai Peninsula...

...and this is where the tourists flock.

Its incredibly steep and conspicuous peaks...

...certainly make the mountain impressive.

But that's where the case for Katarina begins to crumble.

Moses was eighty years old at the time he climbed Mount Sinai.

Katarina would have posed...

...as an extremely difficult feat for the old guy,

and in fact when we consider Katarina's characteristics,

we find it doesn't fit a single biblical criteria.

The best clues in our search for Mount Sinai...

...can be found in the good book itself.

You know what I find amazing?

That people actually don't read the text.

It said explicitly: it has to have a plateau where you can gather,

you know, hundreds of thousands of people.

You can have a rock concert there, right?

What else?

It has to have a water source.

Water source. I'm glad you mentioned that.

What else? It has to be accessible.

How do you spell accessible?

-A.C.C-

[SIMCHA] Santa Katarina just isn't checking out...

...with our criteria.

It's nowhere near the land of Israel...

...where the Israelites were headed,

and there's not a single plateau that could have...

...accommodated hundreds of thousands of Israelites.

And, since it's surrounded by granite,

there's hardly any shrubbery to sustain flocks...

...or water to sustain people.

And there's one more important characteristic Katarina lacks.

Mount Sinai has to be on the actual route of the Exodus:

the route that the Israelites took out of Egypt,

across the Sinai and into the Promised Land, modern Israel.

As they followed Moses into the desert...

...there were only four main routes...

...the Israelites could have taken:

the Northern, the Southern, and two Central routes.

Santa Katarina is way down on the Southern Sinai...

...in the southern route.

But it's a long round about route to Israel.

If you were Moses,

you're leading, according to the Bible,

six hundred thousand fighting men,

meaning if you throw in women and children.

There are easier routes.

Three million people, whatever it is.

Even if it's a hundred thousand people.

It's still not the way to go.

You're up here,

you're going to go all the way down here,

trek into the mountains.

Go across through this-

Moses would have to be an expert Mountain Climber.

[SIMCCHA] Our Posse does not believe...

...that Sinai will be found on the longest...

...and most difficult route to the Promised Land.

I asked David Faiman to join the Posse.

He is an expert tracker...

...when it comes to the route of the Exodus.

The Israelites left Egypt,

they crossed the Red Sea,

and they started initially to march northwards...

...along the most direct route.

But God tells Moses to turn them around...

...because they will see w*r and get scared...

...and run back to Egypt so they turn southwards.

[SIMCHA] Professor Faiman explained to me,

that because of w*r,

the Northern Route was abandoned...

...and the extremely difficult terrain and length...

...of the Southern route made it...

...impossible to travel in a short amount of time.

That left only the two central routes,

which combined to form a single road...

...leading to the Promised Land.

This road is an ancient road.

There are water systems all along it.

That was the road in which Moses would have taken...

...leading the Israelites out to the revelation of Mount Sinai.

[SIMCHA] So where is the mountain of God?

Well, Professor Faiman believes he knows...

...and he says the coordinates have been available to us...

...for well over two thousand years.

[SIMCHA] There's a new man in our search Posse:

Professor Faiman.

And he believes the best candidate for Mount Sinai...

...is a mountain now called Sin Bisher.

Faiman supports this claim...

...based on his interpretation of the clues...

...he says can be found in the Biblical story of the Exodus.

Exodus chapter three starts:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his Father in Law,

the Priest of Median,

and he led the flock to the far side of the desert...

...and came to Horid, the Mountain of God.

There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him...

...in flames of fire from within a bush.

The Lord said:

I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt...

...and I am concerned about their suffering.

So, you and the elders are to go to the King of Egypt...

...and say to him:

the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us,

let us take a three day journey into the desert...

...to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.

So where was the Mountain of God?

It was a three days journey from Egypt.

[SIMCHA] So in the Bible Moses says to Pharaoh,

when they're negotiating, you know,

Moses says, "let my people go".

He says let my people go a days journey into the desert.

We'll worship our God on the mountain there...

...and then we'll come back.

So, people have chosen Mount Sin Bisher,

which just happens to be on the highway,

pretty close to modern day Cairo.

[SIMCHA] So Sin Bisher is days journey from Egypt...

...and it's on the ancient route of the Exodus.

But, many scholars say that Moses...

...was not referring to Mount Sinai...

...when dealing with Pharaoh,

and he simply used the days journey as a negotiating tactic.

Meaning, that after Moses led his people out of Egypt...

...he would have never set up permanent camp...

...so close to his enslavers.

The Israelites would have then been...

...sitting ducks for the Egyptians.

[SIMCHA] So, It was a bluff!

Moses was never serious about this days journey...

...and that doesn't refer to Mount Sinai.

Now, he doesn't mention Mount Sinai at that point.

He had no intention of actually going three days journey,

worshiping and then coming back and being slaves in Egypt.

It was a bluff that's throwing everybody off.

[SIMCHA] And there's something else...

...that has to be considered.

A very important characteristic that Sin Bisher lacks.

The bible says that Mount Sinai was a Holy Mountain,

and even before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments...

...it was considered a place of worship.

Now this is an important archaeological tip...

...because all Holy Mountains in the desert...

...are surrounded by sites displaying Symbols of Worship.

These sites often contain ancient rock arrangements...

...and petroglyphs.

And since we know from the Bible...

...that Mount Sinai was a Holy Mountain,

that means we can narrow the search down.

We can look at those mountains...

...that have places where people worship,

that have been excavated.

And that we can tell that people...

...worshiped here for thousands of years.

[SIMCHA] Sin Bisher has no archaeological evidence...

...that it was ever a place of worship.

So I've crossed off Sin Bisher from the list.

And I've added to my Sinai Posse...

...the quintessential expert on mountain sanctuaries...

...and petroglyphs: U*i Avner.

U*i has studied in detail over sites across the Sinai.

What is amazing to me is you telling me this stuff,

these stones have stood here for years?

Close to years.

[SIMCHA] U*i taught me how to recognize...

...different types of sites,

and he gave me some clues...

...on where we might search for Mount Sinai.

First of all, the archeological indications...

...are a few different types of religious sites.

There are many sites with standing stones or pillars,

which you read usually in the translation of the Bible.

The biblical word, which is also commonly used...

...in the English literature, is Matzevot.

So, you find many Matzevot sites around these mountains,

it means something about the attitude...

...of the ancients to these mountains.

[SIMCHA] U*i has studied over candidates for Mount Sinai.

But, one of the more interesting mountains...

...that he described to us is called Mount Kharkom.

There are indications that Har Kharkom was a sacred mountain.

It was one of many sacred mountains.

What is unique to this particular mountain, Har Karkom,

is the numbers of petroglyphs and petroglyphs,

naturally containing,

let's say religious messages and symbolism.

Where are we going?

Har Kharkom, Mount Kharkom which is in Israel,

very far from Egypt, but it's a very interesting mountain.

[SIMCHA] Are we on a wild goose chase or a sacred path?

Mt. Kharkom just may be our Mt. Sinai.

[SIMCHA] Our search continues.

We're looking for Mt. Sinai,

the holy mountain where Moses...

...received the Ten Commandments from God.

We've searched high and low on the Sinai Peninsula...

...and we've ruled out suspects:

Santa Katarina and Sin Bisher.

We're now on our way to see suspect number :

Mount Kharkom, over kilometers from Egypt...

...in modern day Israel.

We've rounded up a new man in our Posse:

his name is Chanoch Weiser.

He's an expert on Kharkom,

and he knows where to find the most convincing evidence.

Oh you've got all the spots marked.

Yeah.

[SIMCHA] The first thing that Weiser points out to us...

...is the acoustics in the area.

And when you stand on the mountain and someone talks,

for kilometer away, you can hear him.

I never considered that you would need a place...

...where actually voices could carry.

You could hear somebody giving a speech.

Yes, in the biblical story,

the whole scenery is accompanied with a lot of voice.

A lot of voices is in the story and you're right,

it's very great acoustics.

[SIMCHA] At its base,

Mount Kharkom has a Matzevot altar...

...of the kind U*i Avner described.

standing stones which could be symbolic...

...of the tribes of Israel.

We find here the remains of an altar with standing stones.

And the stones remind us of a paragraph...

...from the bible about Moses who put the twelve stones,

for each tribe one stone, under the mountain of God.

The Mountain is surrounded by a very big open space,

which can accommodate a lot of people.

[SIMCHA] Kharkom checks out as an ideal site...

...for the Israelite camp.

And after hours of climbing,

we come to a valley of petroglyphs or rock drawings.

You've got , petroglyphs here. ,.

So you have to say this one mountain is saying hello,

I'm special. I'm different.

Yes, yes.

Okay, , petroglyphs...

...and it's not at any other mountain in the area right?

Or Sinai. I mean it's unique,

even if you look at it from a world point of view.

Yeah, yeah.

[SIMCHA] Weiser believes Mount Kharkom...

...is very special and he shows us a petroglyph...

...unique to this mountain.

One of the most important Petroglyphs on the mountain...

...and that's the drawing of the Ten Commandments.

That's a very special petroglyph.

We don't find petroglyphs like this...

...in all over the mountain and all over the area.

A lot of coincidences on this mountain.

It's either the mountain of God...

...or the mountain of coincidences.

[SIMCHA] But Kharkom's coincidences...

...seem to defy the laws of chance.

There's even archaeological proof that this mountain...

...was a sacred place of worship before the time of Moses.

In technical terms we are in a Paleolithic sanctuary.

A place of worship.

In lay terms what it means is that...

...this place is , years old.

These sculptures would have established this mountain...

...as a holy mountain.

A place to worship way before the Exodus.

But, that's exactly what the Bible says.

It says that Moses, before the Exodus,

went to the mountain of God.

A place which was already known as the mountain of God...

...so it had to be a mountain with a tradition of Holiness.

[SIMCHA] Mount Kharkom certainly checks out...

...with our Sinai criteria,

and it's all adding up to make it a prime candidate...

...for the Holy Mountain.

That is until our Posse discovers a glaring disconnect..

...in the biblical clues, disqualifying Mount Kharkom...

...as a potential Mount Sinai without any doubt.

It basically has to meet all the criteria...

...or it's the wrong mountain. Simple as that.

[SIMCHA] The Sinai Posse has ruled out...

...the third mountain from our list of suspects:

Mount Kharkom.

Our reckoning is based on what can be called...

...the Biblical Itinerary for the Exodus.

The Bible says the Israelites got the Ten Commandments...

... days after the Exodus.

So you can kind of narrow it down a little bit,

especially since there's a tradition...

...that it took them a week to cross the divided sea...

...and they parked themselves for two weeks...

...in a place called Elim where there was water.

[SIMCHA] Elim can be identified with a place...

...known today as the Springs of Moses.

In fact, the Bible reads like a travelogue,

documenting Moses' and the Israelites trip in great detail.

They left Egypt on the th of the Hebrew month Nisan,

they crossed the sea on the st,

they stayed in Etham for three days,

they traveled to Elim and camped,

arriving at the Wilderness of Sin...

...on the th of the month called Iyar.

But most important for our search...

...is the fact that it took the Israelites weeks...

...to travel from Elim to Mount Sinai.

Two weeks to get to Mount Sinai.

That gives you a bit of a geographical coordinate.

If we figure a mass of people can only walk say,

kilometers a day,

then you could put your compass point down on Elim,

figure out kilometers a day, fourteen days,

then you can draw an arc and figure that's where it is.

[SIMCHA] If the Israelites had only two weeks...

...to travel from Elim to Mount Sinai,

there is no way that Mt Kharkom could be the Holy mountain.

It's simply too far away.

So we've crossed Mount Kharkom off the list.

But now that we have a compass point in the desert...

...we can gather more clues and try to triangulate.

You actually have compass points in the bible telling you.

People don't really read the Bible...

...but they go looking for Mount Sinai.

For example it says it's an days journey...

...from a place called Kadesh Barnea,

and the bible goes out of its way to say days.

That's a precise compass point.

You could put your compass on Kadesh Barnea,

multiply by , days at kilometers a day...

...and actually figure out it couldn't be any further...

...than this spot.

[SIMCHA] The Sinai Itinerary helps us build the perfect map.

The Bible has provided our posse with two coordinates.

Look at the beauty of it.

It's not up here, it's not down here.

It's right in the text. You've got coordinates.

And it's the most logical route.

And yeah, the coordinates...

...happen to be on the most logical route.

But, to triangulate, right?

If you want to triangulate, you need three coordinates.

So, we need a third spot.

This is a weird compass point.

A little clue that the bible gives you...

...that nobody's actually focused on.

It's my own contribution to the search for Mount Sinai...

...and that is that Mount Sinai has to be...

...within goat grazing distance from Midianites Territory.

Now, what does a goat have to do with anything?

Well, before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt,

the Bible says that he lived among these people...

...called the Midianitess and he tended flocks.

Leading goats in the desert.

Now, there's a little goat over here,

some Midianitess, some Midianitess.

That's the clue, where Mount Sinai is.

See the goats? See the goats?

That's the clue to where Mount Sinai is...

...because Moses was leading the goat.

[SIMCHA] Yes, it is the goat that is key...

...to the Mount Sinai mystery.

It's these goats that will provide our Posse...

..with the rd coordinate needed to find the Holy Mountain.

But it's these goats...

that are going to take our Posse some time to round up.

So to find Mount Sinai,

you're going to have to wait until next time...