Above is a bathometric map showing the underwater terrain at the Strait of Tiran. Note the shallow, underwater land bridge that extends from Enterprise Passage to Saudi Arabia.1
Underwater Terrain
Let us now look at the underwater terrain at the Red Sea crossing site.
Land Bridge
An underwater land bridge, approximately 18 kilometers (11.2 miles)
long, cuts northeast from the Sinai Peninsula across the Strait of Tiran.
The land bridge is between 60-80 meters (197-262 feet) below sea level.
When God parted the Red Sea, the Israelites traveled across this land bridge
in one night.
Trough
A narrow sea-trough is on the side of the strait nearest the Sinai
Peninsula, at Enterprise Passage. The trough is approximately 700
meters (2,300 feet) wide. It is part of a trough that cuts through
the entire length of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea.
The trough that cuts through the Red Sea is currently estimated to be expanding at a rate of 15.0 to 15.7 millimeters per year (0.59 to 0.62 inches).2 Let us assume for a moment that the exodus happened around 3,300 years ago. Let us also assume for a moment that the trough at Enterprise Passage is expanding at the same rate as the entire Red Sea trough. Based on these assumptions, at the current rate of expansion, the trough would have only expanded around 50 meters (164 feet) in the past 3,200 years. It would not have been closed at the time of the exodus, so the Israelites would have been unable to cross the Red Sea at the Strait of Tiran. However, since the Strait of Tiran is the only place on the Red Sea that geographically fits the Bible's description of the crossing-site, we know the Israelites crossed the Red Sea there, and therefore the portion of the trough at Enterprise Passage was closed at the time of the exodus. The trough at Enterprise Passage ripped open some time after the exodus, and then the widening trough decelerated to its current rate of expansion.
Erosion may be contributing to the expanding width of the trough at Enterprise Passage. No water enters the Red Sea from rivers. As a result, there is an evaporation loss of over 80 inches per year (203 centimeters). To make up for the loss, water flows into the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden, southeast of the Red Sea.3 Water, in turn, flows into the Gulf of Aqaba from the main body of the Red Sea. The water in the Gulf of Aqaba, made saltier, and consequently denser, due to evaporation, sinks. At Enterprise Passage, those dense sub-surface waters flow out into the main body of the Red Sea perhaps further eroding the trough. Less dense surface water flows into the gulf of Aqaba, replenishing the water lost due to evaporation.
Four Coral Reefs
If God were to close the trough at Enterprise Passage and part the
Red Sea today at the Strait of Tiran, a crowd of over two million people
with their cattle and possessions would have great difficulty crossing
the underwater pathway in one night. This is because four huge coral
reefs, towering up to 70 meters (230 feet) in height, and with widths up
to 500 meters (1,640 feet), block the path across the sea.
This is a close-up bathometric map of the Strait of Tiran, showing
the four coral reefs that sit on and block the underwater path across the
Red Sea.4
This is the path across the Red Sea. Note the four coral reefs.
The object on the upper left corner of the first reef in the path (the
Gordon Reef) is a shipwreck. This photograph was provided courtesy
of Mr. Jonathon Shawyer of the Camel Dive Club, Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt.
The four coral reefs, however, are what we would expect to see along the path where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The reefs probably grew over the remains of four Egyptian military divisions that pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea. The Egyptian army would have been partitioned into divisions so that the army's generals could maintain command and control of their units. The four coral reefs are fairly evenly spaced, which is to be expected of four ancient military divisions. Reef number two, the Woodhouse Reef, appears to have grown over an Egyptian division that maintained a linear military formation even unto death.
The reefs are probably so tall in height and wide in breadth because they grew over the entire Egyptian army and all the chariots of Egypt.
The water came back and covered the chariots and the horsemen of the entire army of Pharaoh, who were coming behind [the Children of Israel] in the sea -- there remained not a one of them. (Exodus 14:28 ST; [mine])
A key ingredient for rapid coral growth in the Red Sea is a food supply, best initiated by a large amount of decomposing organic matter. God's destruction of the entire Egyptian army left a great amount of decomposing organic matter at the bottom of the Red Sea, since much of the army sunk to the sea-floor, as is indicated in the following passage: "Deep waters covered them; they descended in the depths like stone" (Exodus 15:5 ST). The decomposing army helped bring huge, towering coral reefs into existence along the underwater path across the Red Sea.
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Endnotes, Part 9
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1 Red Sea Plans in The Gulf of Aqaba: Approaches to Strait of Tiran. Taunton, Somerset, U.K.: Hydrographic Office; Published under the Superintendence of Rear Admiral J.A.L. Myres, C.B., FRICS, Hydrographer of The Navy, Crown, 1993, British Admiralty Chart #801.
2 The New Encyclopedia Britannica,
Volume 21, Macropedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.,
1994, p. 189.
Ibid., p. 189.
3 The New Encyclopedia Britannica,
Volume 21, Macropedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.,
1994, p. 189.
Ibid., p. 189.
4 Red Sea Plans in the Gulf of Aqaba: Strait of Tiran. Taunton, Somerset, U.K.: Hydrographic Office; Published under the Superintendence of Rear Admiral J.A.L. Myres, C.B., FRICS, Hydrographer of The Navy, Crown, 1993, British Admiralty Chart #801.