The Exodus Route: Dophkah

The Exodus Route: Dophkah

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Dophkah

(stage 1)

Overview map (Click on photo for high resolution)	Satellite map (Click on photo for high resolution)
	Exodus locations: Wilderness of Shur Marah Elim Red Sea Camp Wilderness of Sin Dophkah Alush Rephidim (Meribah) Wilderness of Sinai Mt. Sinai

Introduction:

Dophkah and Alush are both staging locations between the wilderness of Sin and Rephidim.
Little is known about them except that they are located in difficult terrain.

A. Bible text:

"They journeyed from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. They journeyed from Dophkah and camped at Alush." Numbers 33:12-13
"Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink." Exodus 17:1

B. Timing and distances:

Travel times, distances, days of the week

They shuttled through Dophkah in stages over 2-3 days, but the first arrivals would be on Sunday evening, or Monday Day 15 from the Red Sea crossing.

C. Photos and maps:

Here is an overview map with all the locations between the Red Sea crossing and Mt. Sinai with distances and times.
Aerial view between Marah and Dophkah
Here is the beginning of the difficult and narrow ground they encountered after leaving the wilderness of Sin.
The traveled through a trench that at times was only 100 meters wide.
View from Alush
A view looking back from Alush, the second stage complete. After Alush they went on in relative easy terrain to Rephidim.

D. How the traditional choice for the Wilderness of Sin fails:

Excluded Exodus Routes: Nuweiba Beech, Bitter lakes, Gulf of Suez, Mt. Musa, Mt. Karkom, Ein el-Qudeirat.

The biggest problem with the traditional exodus Route to Mt. Musa in regards to the section between the Wilderness of Sin and Rephidim (Meribah), is that there is no need to "journey by stages".

The difficult part of the journey is actually between Elim and the "second Red Sea camp", one stop before the Wilderness of Sin. Once you reach the Wilderness of sin, the terrain becomes easy again till you reach Rephidim (Meribah). Then to the horror of traditional route advocates, the route becomes difficult again between Rephidim (Meribah) and the wilderness of Sinai.

Here is a chart of what kind of terrain to expect based on the Bible narrative, and the terrain we find for the traditional route to Mt. Musa, vs the Terrain we find in out route to Jebel Al-Lawz.

They Journeyed by stages between the Wilderness of Sin and Rephidim: Ex 17:1
location	Terrain expected from Bible narrative	Terrain encountered with traditional route to Mt. Lawz near Midian	Terrain encountered with traditional route to Mt. Musa
between Red Sea campl and Wilderness of Sin	Easy	Easy	Difficult
between Wilderness of Sin and Dophkah	Difficult and narrow	Difficult and narrow	Easy
between Dophkah and Alush	Difficult and narrow	Difficult and narrow	Easy
between Alush and Rephidim	Difficult and narrow	Difficult and narrow	Easy
between Rephidim and Wilderness of Sinai	Easy	Easy	Difficult
Assessment	Bible	100 Perfect fit	100 failure

By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

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