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The Wadi Feiran oasis provides a green refuge in the midst of the barren Sinai wilderness, of which the nearby Jebel Serbal, center, stands as a stern reminder. Early Christian monks identified this oasis as Elim, the Israelites’ second encampment, “where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees” (Exodus 15:27). Oases in the south central Sinai today support a Bedouin population of about 10,000, and thus could perhaps have sustained the Israelites on their Exodus journey.