Image Details

STEPHEN O. MOSHIER AND BAHAA GAYED

DRILLING FOR HISTORY. Ancient lagoons located in the eastern Nile Delta left imprints visible on satellite images and in sediment analyses. In this image, geologists and local technicians take sediment cores from the dry bed of the Ballah Lakes, a body of water that some associate with Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds) of the Exodus tradition (e.g., Exodus 13:18). Soil analyses near the site of Tell el-Qedua (possibly ancient Migdol) helped identify an important lagoon known in Egyptian and biblical texts as Shihor, which Jeremiah would have passed during his journey.