Biblical tale of Moses parting the Red Sea ‘may really have happened’
By Tom Kelly 22nd September 2010
The dramatic parting of the Red Sea for the Israelites is perhaps the most spectacular miracle described in the Old Testament.
Now scientists believe it may actually have happened – although it owed more to Mother Nature than to Moses.
A computer simulation suggests that a powerful east wind, blowing for 12 hours overnight, could have driven back shallow waters for four hours allowing a crossing in an area near that depicted in Exodus.
An artist’s impression showing how a strong wind could have pushed back waters from two ancient basins, a lagoon (left) and a river (right), and led to the Biblical account of the parting of the Red Sea. In the biblical account, which was given the Hollywood treatment in Charlton Heston’s epic The Ten Commandments, Moses and the Israelites were trapped between the Pharaoh’s advancing chariots and the sea.
Thanks to divine intervention, a mighty east wind blows all night, splitting the waters to leave a passage of dry land with walls of water on both sides.
