Where is Mount Sinai?

There are several possible candidates for the authentic site of Mount Sinai. The oldest tradition identifies the site as Jebel Musa ("the mountain of Moses") located in the Granite Mountains in the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula. Christian pilgrims have been coming to this site since the fourth century. One of the most ancient monasteries in the world, St Catherine's, was built at the foot of the mountain. The Israelites could have very conceivably reached this mountain because they fled Pharaoh by using a well-known road used to transport turquoise from the Sinai north to the Nile Delta.

A second option is Mt Karkom, located in southern Israel very close to the Egyptian border. The mountain was an important holy site for millennia. It is literally covered with thousands of ancient inscriptions and rock art going back as far as 4000 BCE. Mt Karkom is convincing because it is located fairly close to Kadesh Barnea, the desert oasis which will later become the Israelites' home base during their 38 years of wandering. The Bible says that this oasis was an eleven days journey from Mount Sinai (Deut. 1:2).

A third option is Jebel el-Lawz, located in Saudi Arabia. This region was known as Midian in the biblical period. Proponents of this theory point to the fact that Moses was in this region because he had consulted with his father-in-law Jethro, a Midianite priest, prior to ascending Mt Sinai (Ex. 18:1). If this is the real location, it would mean that when the Israelites crossed the "Sea of Reeds" earlier (Ex. 13:18), it was in fact the Gulf of Aqaba. Moreover, this mountain has a blackened summit, which supports the biblical description of the mountain "wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire" (Ex. 19:18).

We will probably never know for certain the real location of Mount Sinai, but perhaps this mystery is not meant to be solved. Before Moses ascends the mountain alone, God instructs him to "set limits around the mountain and keep it holy" (Ex. 19:23). Its secrecy and mystery are intentional. But this has not prevented biblical geographers from trying hard to identify the real location