Exodus - Hebrews, Egyptians, Chariot Drownings - A 21st Century Review - Topography, Facts and Logic

The topography at the Gulf of Aqaba, the easternat both the Sinai and Saudi Arabia sides.
appendage of the Red Sea in the Mid-East, is so- During 3500 years, undoubtedly turbulent storms
unusual that it really begs a question: if there was andhave swept much debris over the sides of the ridge
is a God, one who wanted to show humankindto the sea floor, thousands of feet below, yet
"miracles": 1) the splitting of a long, deep sea andenough chariot wheel artifacts remain to prove
walls of water being held back by an East wind; 2) tohappenings of millennia ago.
reveal an undersea pathway leading to safety in- To a realist - large volumes of sand are not unusual
another land (seven miles across); 3) which can be- on ocean coastline beaches. However, such an
used for the escape of a slave-people; 4) and thenimmense volume of sand, to create a mile-size beach
engulf and drown the pursuing chariot army - doesn'tand to nearly fill the almost mile-deep Gulf across
that require the precise, amazing and improbableseven miles - from a river wadi runoff - has to be so
set-up that 21st century realists can easily see todayunusual that it beggars the mind. Yet there it is -
in the Mid-East and on the Internet?enabling the play-out of the Biblical scene: Hebrews
What are the solid, scientific facts:somehow escaping on foot across a wide sea, and
- During the past decade, photos in a dozen bookslater, a chariot army being drowned. That's what the
plus underwater films (all readily available), showtopography and artifacts show.
coral-covered wreckage of 18th Dynasty Egyptian- There is, of course, solid extra-biblical verification of
Chariot wheels (of 3500 years ago) strewn along anan Hebraic-Semitic peoples having once been slaves in
undersea ridge which bridges the Gulf of Aqaba -Egypt; of a Joseph-Imhotep in Egypt; of a Moses;
from Nuweibo Beach on the Sinai Peninsula to Saudiand centuries later, of the Hebrews conquering
Arabia.Canaan, and Kings Saul, David and Solomon. Thus,
- The Gulf of Aqaba, about 100 miles long and seventhere is factual extra-biblical before-and-after
or eight miles wide, is attached to the Red Sea atevidence - that slave people Israelites managed,
the Straits of Teran, is extremely deep, 5000 feetsomehow, to really leave Egypt and reach
(Argonese Deep) on one side of the undersea ridgeCanaan-Palestine. The Bible's Exodus story tells how.
and 3000 feet (Eilat Deep) on the other. The depthCan it be believed?
of the sea has been well probed and verified.- Logic says: the wreckage strewn along the ridge
- Satellite photos show Nuweibo Beach as extremelypathway to the shore of Saudi Arabia, seven miles
large, about a mile on a side, extending into the Gulf -away, argues that the chariots, horses and men got
the start of the undersea ridge pathway.there by their own volition - boats or currents didn't
- The undersea pathway is described by Dr. Lennartcarry them to where they are today. Why and how
Moeller, medical research scientist, marine biologist anddid they get there? The Bible says the charioteers
archaeologist, who led a diving expedition there atraveled there voluntarily - chasing the Israelites -
decade ago, as being strewn with coral-coveredwho seemed to be safely effecting their escape. Is
chariot wheels, axles and shafts, even some skeletalthere another explanation?
bones of horses and men. Dr. Viveka Ponten,- Even though the ridge is thousands of feet above
archaeologist and deep-sea diver, had been doingthe bottom of the Gulf, it is still hundreds of feet
similar diving-research off the shore of Saudi Arabia.below sea level, so how could anyone traveling on
On the expedition were a half-dozen internationalthe ridge survive - if the Egyptians did not? Maybe
world-class scientists from three continents, providingthe Israelites (or whoever) were never there - then
scholarly oversight: Dr. Frank Moore Cross,why and how did the charioteers go so many miles
world-renowned Archaeologist and Professoronto the ridge? If 3500 years ago, the water level of
Emeritus of Harvard University; Dr. John A. Bloom,the Gulf was much lower and the ridge was above
Director of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Researchthe sea, then why the chariot wreckage? The bible
Institute; Dr. Bryant C. Wood, Director of Associationsays "walls of water were held back by an East wind
for Biblical Research; Dr. C. S. Lewis; et al.- which then collapsed, drowning the charioteers" -
- Per marine biologists, coral does not grow on rocksbut that requires belief in a "somewhat-miracle". Is
and sand, only on man-made objects. There is nothere a rational explanation?
other spot on earth, even in the same Gulf ofA religious believer could argue that the ridge
Aqaba, which contains such coral-covered chariotpathway was a topographical "prop" - set up at the
wreckage. The wheel diameters and number ofbeginning of time - precisely for this event to show
spokes match the chariots found in King Tut's tombthe power of the Creator. The counter-argument
and as shown on Egyptian wall murals of thatwould be that, while improbable, it was just fortuitous
dynastic period.happenstance - that the quarry fleeing from the
- The entry area to the beach is a dry river bed -Egyptian chariot army, was just lucky or
Wadi Watir, shown on satellite photography asknowledgeable so as to come upon this ridge - and
twisting and turning between rugged hills and leadingsomehow the sea level was lower then, or the East
to Nuweibo beach. The undersea ridge begins at thewind was very, very focused, concentrating only on
beach's projection into the Gulf, the sand-silt depositsthe strip of water above the ridge, or ???.
over millennia having - created the mile-size beach,So those are the facts. Is there any other spot on
then continuing to deposit such a volume of sand asEarth that is even close to matching such a
to almost completely fill the near-mile deep andtopological-prop set-up - completely improbable, but
seven-mile-wide Gulf.completely essential for the biblical scenario to play
- At the half-way point, the undersea ridge is a fewout?
hundred feet below sea level. The slopes of the ridgeSomething for 21st century realists to scratch their
are approximately a traversable 12 degree inclinationheads over.