Nature & Environment

'Death pools' discovered where Moses was said to have parted the Red Sea

By T.K. Randall
February 24, 2025 ·  4 comments

Moses parting the Red Sea. Image Credit: Ivan Aivazovsky The miraculous parting of the Red Sea to enable the Israelites to escape from Egypt is one of the best known biblical stories, a tale that has even made its way on to the silver screen, perhaps most notably in the Charlton Heston classic The Ten Commandments.

Today, most biblical scholars and historians believe that the precise location of the crossing - the spot where the waters parted - was somewhere along the modern-day Gulf of Aqaba situated at the northern tip of the Red Sea.

As it turns out, however, there is more to this stretch of water than just its historical significance.

Recently, a new study headed up by Sam Purkis of the Department of Marine Geosciences at the University of Miami discovered the presence of deadly brine pools 4,000ft beneath the surface.

These pools, which were located via a remote-operated submersible, contain 10 times the level of salt found in the surrounding water, meaning that any marine life that happens to venture into them will be starved of oxygen and die.According to the team, these conditions mimic the environment in which the first life forms emerged on Earth several billion years ago and could help us to better understand how life came to be.

The lack of creatures within the salt pools has also helped to preserve the sediment.

"Ordinarily, these animals bioturbate or churn up the seabed, disturbing the sediments that accumulate there," said Purkis. "Not so with the brine pools."

"Here, any sedimentary layers that settle to the bed of the brine pool remain exquisitely intact."

As for Moses parting the Red Sea, however - sadly no evidence of this has been found by the team so far.

Source: Greek Reporter | Comments (4)

Tags: Moses, Red Sea