Springs of Moses (Ayun Musa)

13 m above sea level

To Sinai via the desert. Scene at the Springs of Moses; (Marah?). — Photochrom, Library of Congress · no known restrictions on publication

In the Bible

After the sea, Israel walked three days in the desert without water; at Marah the water was bitter until Moses threw a log into it and it became sweet.

Exod 15:22–25Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,

Tradition

Local tradition names these springs after Moses and links them with Marah or with Elim; other proposals for Marah lie farther south along the coast.

Here today

A few springs and palms in the sand near the Gulf of Suez, south of the city of Suez.

This place in the Bible

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Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).