First Egyptian Expedition in November 1997.

     The first Sinai Egypt expedition was in November 1997. There was an Egyptian driver and geologist, Douglas Vogt and Victor Ardelean. There is an interesting story about how the arrival date was determined and it involves what I call a sacred number and an act of God. If you read Chapter 11 in God’s Day of Judgment or Chapter 11 in Moses and the Ten Code Systems you will find that the number of years between important events falls on one of these numbers. The numbers are all factors or functions of the number 12,068, which is the number of years between polar reversals. Such an example is at hand. I discovered this relationship in April 1994 and so I wanted to see if important events were controlled or programmed by God to occur when He wanted. Therefore, what I did was let the Egyptians decide when the expedition would occur. They chose November 29, 1997. That is exactly 50 years after the UN voted to create the State of Israel. We arrived at the hill in the late afternoon because one of the trucks broke down. This delay resulted in our arrived being exactly at the same time the UN voted to create the state of Israel exactly 50 years before. This is how the holy number shows up; 50 X 24.136 (the length of the sacred cubit) equals 1,206.8. You ignore the decimal point; the sequence of numbers is the message.

First day of the Expedition

     The first day the three of us walked along the north base of the hill. Some flint was observed as well as some fire pits. The hills fractures were clearly visible and examined. I got a closer look at the scars on the hill and concluded they were fractures in the limestone that formed the hill. There was an rectangular trench dug by someone in the middle of the north valley. I was able to find some fish bones (Figure 1) about three feet down. That indicated the area had a much wetter climate a very long time ago.

Caption below: Fish vertebra found in a pit in the north valley.

Caption: A small scrub brush flowered at the time we were there.

     We went back to the camp for lunch. After lunch the Egyptian geologist and myself went back to where we left off. Vic stayed at the camp to take a nap. At the western end of the hill was an easy slope to walk to the top. When we arrived at the top I noticed it was slightly curved and certainly long enough to accommodate the tent of meeting that was 201 feet long and 100 feet wide. At that point I also discovered the remains of the sacrificial altar as well as other piles of rocks that I had not yet identified.

     We both walked off the hill and proceeded along the south side. A short distance from the western end of the hill I spotted some piles of rocks that I knew were not natural. I made a fast count and it did total twelve and they were in somewhat straight rows. During the second expedition I had two other geologists, Larry and Frank, survey the spot to see if they came up with the same pattern. They did—I had discovered the location of the Hebrew’s twelve standards.

Caption below: The first picture of the location of the 12 standards.

     Only about 50-feet away from there I saw a bush that could be described like sagebrush. Stuck in the bush were two rams’ horns (see picture below). The Egyptian and myself continued east along the base of the hill. There were scars also visible there which told me that the hill had multiple fractures that matched up on both sides. When we got back to the camp I walked into our tent where Vic was still laying down and dropped the two rams’ horns on the floor and said “look what I found.” He said “Oh my God” he immediately knew exactly what it was telling us. Remember the Genesis story where Abraham finds a ram or goat stuck by its horns in a bush and Abraham sacrifices the animal instead of Isaac. I know those two rams’ horns could not be 3,617 years old, but what I think God was telling me is: “Yes Doug you found the real Mount Sinai.”

     Also found that day was an active well on the south side of the hill and flint arrowheads and spearheads. There were large fields of worked flint tools. They may have been from the Neolithic period because the quantity was overwhelming.

     The next day we walked south of the hill towards the wadi because we were told by the Bedouins that there were other altars there.  On the way there I walked past a mound. I walked a little further and then stopped because it occurred to me that what I saw was not natural. What I found was the first altar Moses had built after they arrived at Mount Sinai (see picture). the video on the Exodus will show our excavation.

Caption: The first altar Moses had built shortly after the congregation arrived at the base of Mount Sinai.

     After taking the picture and examining it I continued on my trip to the next location. There was a clearing about 900 feet long that had one large stone altar and a smaller one just 50 feet due west. The larger altar turned out to be Aaron's altar (see figure) and the other was the platform where the golden calf was placed.

Caption below: Aaron's altar found near the wadi and a wide encampment along the wadi.

Caption: Platform where the golden calf was placed. It was located about 50-feet west of Aaron's altar. This altar was only about 4 feet from the edge of the wadi.

     The second day we surveyed the top of the hill and found the sacrificial altar that was about six feet high and made of unhoned stone and dirt just as the Torah says

Caption: This is the sacrificial altar Moses had built at the top of the hill. During the first expedition I had a chance to dig into the altar to see  how it was constructed and also to see if I could find any wood or bone that could have C14 tested. I did not dig very far. The second expedition I dug much further and  found another altar.

     The last day of the expedition I went back up to the top of Mount Sinai and got a closer look at a large altar due east of the sacrificial altar. It had the correct dimensions and shape where the Ark of the Covenant was placed and there was a ramp on the south side as described in the Torah. During the second expedition I identified the location of the candle stand and the bread stand and there were in the correct locations and distance as described by Moses.

Caption below: The Ark Altar located east of the sacrificial altar on top of the hill. The ramp was located on the south side of it. The complete description is in Volume III on the Exodus.

Caption: The Ark altar looking east. The ramp is clearly seen on the right.

Summary

     The first expedition was very productive. I found all the altars Moses described in the Torah, as well as evidence of a lot of people living around the hill. I am the first person in 2,584 years that figured out and discovered the location of the real Mount Sinai.