Jabal al-Lawz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (March 2008)

Jabal al-Lawz (Arabic: جبل اللوز‎) is a mountain of volcanic origin located in northwest Saudi Arabia, 28 degrees 41 minutes north, 35 degrees 18 minutes east, 2403 metres/7384 feet tall. The name means mountain of almonds. Howard Blum^[1]^[2] , Bob Cornuke^[3] (of BASE Institute), and Ron Wyatt have proposed that Jabal al-Lawz, and not the traditional Jebel Musa in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, was the Biblical Sinai. The claim is not widely supported by academically qualified biblical scholars or archaeologists, but supporters who have visited the al-Lawz site report observing features corresponding to the Biblical account.

[edit] Evidence

Blum, Wyatt, and their supporters cite the following observations as evidence that Jabal al-Lawz fits the Exodus accounts:

The site is already recognized as an archaeological site. The fence surrounding the pile of boulders where the cow drawings appear has Saudi signs to warn people away as an archaeological site.
Crossing the Red Sea is a requirement to be biblical^{[citation needed]}. The commonly recognized location of Mt. Sinai is on the Egyptian peninsula.
There is an underwater reef that spans the Red Sea at the suggested crossing point, about 50' below the surface. At this point on the peninsula there would have been no escape from the Egyptian army, except the reef, once it was revealed by the wind.
The desert is a major requirement that exists at Jabal al Lawz, but does not exist at all, at the current site claimed to be Mt. Sinai.
having a desert behind it that could fit^{[citation needed]} the number of people described in the Bible (2,000,000).
being located in ancient Midian
- thus being in Arabia Petraea, and so agreeing with Josephus, Philo, and the Apostle Paul
- and, in common with the southern Levant, and Sinai Peninsula, is on the migration path of quail
- while also not being in ancient Egypt or its dominions
it has evidence of an ancient spring (cf. Meribah)
a large altar at the foot of the mountain has many calf drawings (cf. Golden Calf). These drawings suggest a connection with the story of the Israelites instructing Aaron to build a golden calf idol.
There is another man-made formation at the bottom of the mountain that appears to be a (cattle) chute formed of stones, with a pit at the end. This too agrees with a Biblical description. It appears to be a sacrificial fire pit, as Moses noted, "at the foot of the mountain of God".
there is a cave in the mountain, fitting the description of Elijah spending the night on Mt. Horeb.
there are large piles of rocks at the base (the biblical narrative states that the base of Sinai was marked out). They are evenly distributed along the base of the mountain approximately 400 yards apart and do not seem to have been the result of random rock slides.
the discovery of the remains of chariots in the Gulf of Aqaba nearby