Has the real Mount Sinai been found in the Negev?

Italian Jewish archeologist Emmanuel Anati believes he discovered the mountain in 1954.

By EMANUEL MFOUKOU
More than 40,000 pieces of ancient rock art have been found (photo credit: Herbert Kelly/ICEJ)
More than 40,000 pieces of ancient rock art have been found
(photo credit: Herbert Kelly/ICEJ)
Mountains play an important role in the Bible. Indeed, a number of stories central to God’s plan for world redemption unfold on the tops of mountains in and around Israel that we can visit today.
In Jerusalem, for instance, Mount Zion (aka Mount Moriah) and the Mount of Olives feature in several biblical dramas, such as the binding of Isaac, the building of the Temple and the arrival of the Messiah. The ark of Noah came to rest on Mount Ararat, Moses looked over into the Promised Land from Mount Nebo in Jordan, and Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
Yet one of the most important very first one to be identified as the “mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1), is shrouded in mystery, because there is no consensus on where it is located. The place where Moses received the Ten Commandments and met face-toface with the Creator, where monotheism was birthed into the world, has been lost to history.
This mountain is known as Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb, or simply “the mountain of God.” Its exact location has been debated for centuries and the quest to find it has intensified in recent decades, with numerous mountain peaks now competing for the title. We know it was in a dry wilderness area somewhere between Egypt and the Land of Israel, but that leaves a lot of desert to cover.
For centuries, most Christians have accepted the tradition that Mount Sinai is situated near the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula, at a place known in Arabic as Jebl Moussa. This tradition came from a group of Christian pilgrims some 1,600 years ago, which chose the highest mountain peak in the southern Sinai, figuring that surely it was the one which put Moses closest to heaven.
In the 6th century, Saint Catherine’s Monastery was built at the foot of this mountain by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to accommodate pilgrims.
In the ensuing centuries, it has gained widespread recognition as the Mount Sinai, even though there is little archeological evidence to back that claim.
In recent decades, more than 20 rival claimants to Jebl Moussa have been proposed. Some of these contenders are scattered around the Sinai Peninsula, while others have been touted as far away as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and even in the opposite direction from Egypt – in the Sahara.
But in 1954, an Italian Jewish archeologist named Emmanuel Anati came upon a mountain in the Negev desert which piqued his interest while surveying the vast region for ancient rock art. It was known locally as Mount Karkom, the “Mountain of Saffron,” named after a spice taken from a native desert crocus. Mount Karkom was located in a vast empty desert some 200 km. northwest of Eilat and 110 km. south of Mitzpe Ramon, and had some fascinating archeological features. But Anati lost his bearings back to the mountain and only managed to find it again in 1978, when he began to excavate in earnest.
Early on, Anati noticed an unusual abundance of paintings and engravings on rock formations, many with biblical motifs. The surrounding plateau was covered with shrines, altars, stone circles and stone pillars, indicating it was a major paleolithic cult center.
The mountain was also halfway between Petra and Kadesh Barnea, along an ancient trade route through the extremely arid Negev, with water available at wells interspersed all along the route. Based on a theory that the Israelites traveled across the Sinai Peninsula towards Petra in a fairly straight line, Anati was among the scholars who started matching Mount Karkom with the biblical Mount Sinai.
Since then, some 40,000 examples of rock art have been found on the hillsides surrounding Mount Karkom, making it by far the highest concentration of Stone Age rock art in the entire Middle East. Many of the engravings carry what could be interpreted as early biblical motifs, such as a rod with a serpent wrapped around it, the eye of God, and scenes of people worshiping with lifted hands.
Throughout time, the mountain has been known by different names. Beduin tribes have always referred to it as Jebl Ideid, the mountain of multitude or commemoration. In the 1950s, it also went by the name Mount Geshur.
Anati recently explained to The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition why he believes he has found the real Mount Sinai. 
“I discovered the mountain in 1954,” recalled Anati. “I was then a student doing research on the rock art of the Negev desert. In 1980, we systematically started to study the mountain and in 1984 we reached the conclusion that this was the Holy Mountain.”
“Now archeological finds are very inspiring but they are not conclusive, which can lead people to claim that they are pure coincidence,” he continued. “But there are things that push me to think that it really is Mount Sinai. First of all, this was a very important mountain in the Bronze Age. And it is unlikely that the Old Testament did not mention this mountain. As I could not find any name fitting this mountain, my first approach led me to consider that this might be Mount Sinai.”
Anati considers the route used by the Israelites after they left Egypt to be crucial to locating Mount Sinai. This is a riddle which has kept Christian researchers busy since Byzantine times. But in order to find the route, Anati decided to walk through the Sinai himself and try to trace the original route on foot.
“I have studied the itinerary of the Exodus route and went through Egypt and Sinai, all the way trying to find the different stations mentioned in the Bible – I did it twice,” he said. “The first time I had in my mind that St. Catherine’s was Mount Sinai, and I got completely lost. The second time I had this idea in mind of Mount Karkom and I could find many stations which fit the description of the Bible. That itinerary led me directly to the area of Mount Karkom.”
One of the most interesting discoveries supporting his theory is that Mount Karkom is 11 days journey by foot from Kadesh Barnea, just as the Book of Deuteronomy describes. In addition, the route has 10 wells spaced fairly evenly apart, providing a source of water at the end of each day of travel.
“It is absolutely fitting,” insisted Anati. “So all those things led me to think that it was Mount Sinai.”
Today, there are still remains of several of the way stations where the Israelites might have stayed on their trek to Mount Sinai, as described in Exodus. This includes place names like Succot (booths), Pi Hahoroth (mouth of the canals), Migdol (watch tower) and Baal Zephon (Lord of the North). Marah, the place where bitter water became sweet, is believed to be modern-day El-Mura, today surrounded by wells of bitter water. Another station was Taberah, a name derived from the Hebrew word for “burnt.”
Another crucial find has been archeological remains from the Bronze Age, including evidence of large encampments at the foot of the mountain and in surrounding areas. In contrast, excavations done in the area around the traditional Mount Sinai at Jebl Moussa have not revealed any credible archeological proofs of this nature.
Anati is full of other arguments and facts which point to Mount Karkom being the Mountain of God. He notes that the area around Mount Karkom contains the richest trove of archeological remains in the whole of the Negev and Sinai Peninsula. Shards of pottery identical to the ones found at Mount Karkom have also been discovered in both Baal Zephon and Kadesh Barnea, two of the known stops used by the Israelites.
One of the most intriguing – and perhaps most persuasive – finds is one which meshes well with the biblical narrative of the Israelite stay at Mount Sinai. Both Exodus chapters 20 and 24 tell of Moses being instructed to make an altar of stone using 12 pillars not cut by human hand. Near the foot of Mount Karkom today is a stone altar dating to the Bronze Age which consists of two rows of six large natural pillars each, with a sharpened stone nearby suitable for slaughtering animals to sacrifice.
Another key clue in the search for the true Sinai is to locate the tribal lands of Midian and Amalek. Moses married the daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro and spent some 40 years in the region tending his sheep, so he was intimately familiar with the territory of the Midianites. It was during this time that Moses had the encounter with God at the burning bush, which is identified in the biblical text as occurring at the “mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1). There, Moses was told to bring the Israelites back to this same mountain, also called Mount Horeb, after their deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 3:13).
So it follows that the mountain has to be located within the tribal realm of the Midianites, in an area capable of handling a large encampment of people. It also must be within the normal grazing range of nomadic shepherds in that day, who rarely ventured more than five days journey from home with their flocks.
Many scholars place Midian east of the Arava Desert, but, according to Anati, the Midianites lived in the Uvda valley and southern Negev. Based on archeological finds, Anati estimates that it might have taken Moses two to three days to reach Mount Karkom from where Jethro lived, well within a shepherd’s grazing range for those days.
Anati claims the physical aspects of Mount Karkom also correspond to the Torah’s description of Mount Horeb. In Hebrew, the word horev comes from the word harev, signifying an arid or destroyed area. In other words, it signifies an excessively dry place having insufficient rainfall to support agriculture.
In addition, the Bible seems to describe a fairly easy access to the top of the mountain, as Moses made the journey to the top more than once some days. This fits well with the topography of Mount Karkom, as one could easily reach its top several times in one day.
Anati concedes the archeological record around Mount Karkom indicates the mountain was considered sacred by other peoples long before the Israelites arrived there. Yet he insists this lends the place credibility as a traditional place of divine worship, even though it is located in the middle of nowhere.
One of the main criticisms of Anati’s theory is the way in which other scholars date the Exodus from Egypt, with many placing it in the 13th century BCE, over 800 years later than the time period calculated by Anati. This presents a problem because Mount Karkom appears to be an abandoned site in this later era. But this has not deterred him.
“It cannot be in the 13th century BCE as most people claim,” Anati protested. “I think that Joshua is the beginning of the 19th century and Exodus is from the 23rd to 21st century. And this is one of the elements which is disturbing many people, and turning many people against this. Very actively, they are trying to shut my mouth and impede me from talking about it. They even stopped financing my research, causing me to go on by my own.”
Nevertheless, Anati believes that he has history on his side, at least if one is to believe a number of ancient Egyptian documents which indicate that his earlier dates may be correct.
One of these documents is the Ipuwer Papyrus, which contains an old Egyptian poem called the “Admonitions of Ipuwer.” There is no agreement as to when this poem was written, but some scholars maintain that it dates back to 1850-1600 BCE. The poem describes a disaster that hit the country, where the rich became poor and the poor rich. It further describes several incidents comparable to the ten plagues. For instance, it talks about how the river turned to blood, and the land of Egypt was covered in darkness.
Anati draws further support from the tale of Sinhue, which describes the story of an Egyptian official who had to flee from Pharaoh and settle in another country, where he married the daughter of a regional chief. The story, first recounted in a manuscript dating back to 1800 BCE, has several features in common with the life story of Moses and thus could be a version of events taking place several hundred years before the more popular date for the Exodus.
Another ancient source backing Anati on an earlier date for the Exodus is the Merneptah Stele, a stone inscription commissioned by King Merneptah of Egypt who reigned around 1210 BCE. The stele was discovered in Thebes, an ancient capital of Egypt, by a British Egyptologist at the end of the 19th century. It is best known for its mention of “Israel” for the first time in historical records. The claim is that if Israel was conquered by King Merneptah already in the 13th century BCE, the Exodus must have taken place much earlier.
Today, many Christians are starting to take greater interest in the mountain discovered by Anati and undertaking the long and grueling six-hour jeep ride there and back to visit the site in person. He recalled witnessing one group of some 100 Baptist clergymen from Germany and America who bowed down and kissed the ground while praying and worshipping at the foot of Mount Karkom.
In addition, Dr. Anati remains optimistic that the Catholic Church will officially endorse his findings, given its growing interest in his research and the fact that they have published his book under a more positive title.
“I had a Catholic commission of seven theologians which came many times to see me, and as a consequence of this research the Vatican publishing house ordered a book from me on the discoveries of Mount Karkom,” he related. “They commissioned the book and asked me for a manuscript, which I gave the title The Discoveries of Har Karkom. But they renamed the title to The Rediscovery of Mount Sinai.”
Anati believes this means Catholic scholars have accepted his ideas, even though the Vatican has yet to make a pronouncement. There also has been a full-page article in the Vatican journal L’Osservatore Romano presenting his theory with the headline asking: “Does Har Karkom solve the problem of Mount Sinai?” 
“I think it’s already a good step forward,” beamed Anati.
The Christian Edition also approached the Israel Antiquities Authority for its position on Anati’s claims about Mount Karkom. Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini, a southern district archeological inspector, responded that Mount Karkom has indeed been declared an official antiquity site but she declined to be drawn into the debate over whether it is the real Mount Sinai.
“This is something that belongs to the realm of scientific and scholarly discussion, and usually those things are reached by consensus,” she commented. “So we don’t weigh in about the identification. We respect, obviously, the different opinions. Whether it is possibly Mount Sinai or not, we have no official stand about that... To be able to say that it is Mount Sinai we would need more written evidence from the site itself.”
With more than 40 expeditions to Mount Karkom under his belt and years of toil and effort invested in the site, Anati is not giving up easily.
“I think that in order to have a full recognition, you need people that know archeology, know the Bible, know geography and have a good sense of anthropology and climatology,” he said. “All of these things together in one person is very rare. Nobody dares to express a positive idea, because they don’t have the tools to judge, but I hope that this may change.”
Anati remains confident that one day the world will recognize his find as the “Mountain of God.”
“I know that Mount Karkom is Mount Sinai,” he concluded. “There is no other possibility. Some people have told me that I am like a prophet, and that people will recognize the truth only after I am dead. I think it is inevitable that people will recognize Mount Karkom as Mount Sinai, but I just don’t know how long it will take.”