Can we find evidence of the story of moses and exodus?
[man] here, at this site, we have the tomb of moses.
-There's a tomb here? -[man] yeah.
-Of moses? -Yes.
Can we see it?
Were israelites ever driven out of egypt from inside its borders?
It's happened.
-It did happen? -Yes.
[josh] all right.
It's hammer time.
Kids, ask your parents what that means.
Little bit of a drop off.
What'd you find? Oh, my word.
Fire!
And this is the burning bush.
Wait, you mean the burning bush?
This is the burning bush?
[josh yells]
Holy, moses, hah!
Look at this place.
Let my people go.
This unapologetic demand for justice
Echoes across the millennia from the story of moses.
Prophet, law giver, freedom fighter, his resume is legendary.
He delivers the israelites from slavery in egypt.
Receives the 10 commandment from god.
And leads his people to the promised land.
But are the incidents in the book of exodus based on historical events?
And, frankly, was moses a real person?
Did he speak to god?
Plague the pharaoh and part the red sea?
Scholars have long debated the origins of these stories,
And now archeology may have answers.
In egypt, a long sealed tom
Hides tantalizing clues about the identity of moses.
Meanwhile, inscriptions in an ancient mine
Might lead us to the fleeing israelites.
And I plan to climb a remote peak,
That the faithful believe is the true mount sinai.
And then there's a question you may never have thought of:
Where exactly is moses burie
The controversy over his final resting place
Not to mention the discover of a strange man-made structure
In the sea of galilee,
Might change what we think we know about his story.
So join me on a quest of biblical proportions.
As we cross nations and deserts
In the shadow of the prince of egypt
To uncover the truth behind the mysteries of moses.
My name is josh gates.
Hello!
Explorer...
...Adventurer...
Amazing.
Help!
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
Oh! [bleep] whoo! That was exciting.
With a degree in archeology
And a passion for the unexplained,
[exclaims]
I travel to the ends of the earth,
Investigating the greatest legends in history.
'kay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkno.
In the words of scripture,
This is where the story of moses begins, the nile.
It's the 13th century bce,
Egypt is at the height of its power and prosperity
In a period known as the new kingdom.
Cities and monuments spread out across the nile delta.
But according to the bible,
All that prestige is built on the backs of hebrew slaves.
It's a powerful story but is there any proof that it's true?
We're sailing to one of the oldest parts of cairo to find out.
Today, cairo is a mostly muslim city.
But for centuries, the neighborhood of coptic cairo,
Has been the center of christianity in egypt,
And a melting pot for all the abrahamic faiths.
My search for moses begins near the oldest jewish synagogue in cairo,
Ben ezra, founded in 1115.
I'm here to meet my old friend, egyptologist aidan dodson.
-Josh, great to see you. -How are you?
Not too bad.
Here we are again in egypt.
Indeed.
I have to say, all the times I've been to cairo,
I've never been to this neighborhood.
Where are we?
We're in old cairo.
-Okay. -And this goes back to roman times.
And this tower behind just here
Is past that roman fortress.
Also here we've got the oldest church in cairo, which is this one here,
-So called hanging church. -Beautiful.
Also, if you just go down the road,
We get to the oldest mosque in the whole of egypt.
[josh] wow, this is the meeting point of faiths here.
Very much so, yeah.
Okay, so what does this have to do with moses?
Well, according to tradition...
...It was near here that the baby moses
Was found in a basket in the nile.
As the story goes,
The pharaoh decided to have all the first born hebrew babies killed,
Because a prophecy had said that one of them
Would lead the hebrew slaves out of bondage.
Right, so a chosen one.
-A chosen one. -Uh-huh.
To save her son, moses' mother puts him in a basket,
And puts him in the river
And trusts him to the river's care.
And that's really just the prologue of the moses story,
Because he goes on to have this, you know, harrowing adventure.
This is like the great epic of the old testament.
We need a moses 101 package, hit it.
[booming] the [normal] heavily abridged
[booming] life of moses!
Okay, so after being hidden in a basket,
Moses is saved by the pharaoh's daughter
And is raised as a prince of egypt,
Which feels like a pretty solid upgrade.
Things seemed to be going we until moses learns of his tr hebrew heritage.
Upon seeing an egyptian beating one of his enslaved brethren,
Moses kills the assailant and buries him in the sand.
Note to self: Do not cross moses.
He then goes on the lam for decades,
And is eventually confronte by a burning bush
That, oh, also happens to talk.
The speaking shrub is the voice of god
And commands moses to free the israelites from bondage.
Moses says, "no, thanks," the bush says, "uh, I'm god do it".
Moses is like, "okay, yeah, fair point".
Moses then goes to the phara
And delivers the now legendary message,
[booming] "let my people go
[normal] with the threat of plagues as added incentive.
Pharaoh declines, bad move.
And god does as promised,
Unleashing a series of 10 fierce curses
Which do not seem at all fun for anyone.
The last plague, killing every first born egyptian son,
Really seals the deal.
Moses and the newly freed people invent matzah,
And hightail it out of egyp while the getting is good.
Moses' brother aaron is also in tow,
As is his sister, miriam.
The pharaoh chases them all to the red sea
Where moses raises his staff
And, with a little help from the almighty upstairs,
Parts the body of water, allowing his people to safely cross
Before engulfing the egyptian army.
Next, moses climbs a mountain and returns after, like, 40 days
With 10 commandments inscribed by god himself on two stone tablets.
Except, a little awkward, his followers are like,
"oh, hi, uh, you were up in that mountai for a very long time
So we started worshipping this golden cow statue while you were gone."
Moses is furious!
Smashes the tablets, cools off, gets more, things are fine.
Then, in the ultimate act of not asking for directions
Moses and the israelites wander around in the desert for 40 years,
Before reaching the promised land,
Otherwise known as canaan.
Today known as israel.
Due to some anger issues, moses himself is not allowe to enter,
And is buried, by god, on a mountain.
But he does get the satisfaction of, at leas seeing his people
Enter into the promised lan which is pretty good.
And scene.
Everybody got all that? Okay.
There's something very archetypal about this as a foundation myth.
In particular, the foundation myth of a hero.
Right.
If the story
Of an orphaned child who's really the chosen one sounds familiar
That's because it's been adapted again and again in popular culture,
From oliver twist,
To luke skywalker,
To harry potter.
But in the case of moses,
It's the origin story of a faith.
Because this is the whole foundation of the idea
Of there being the israelite people,
The origin of the religion.
Everything ultimately comes down to the whole exodus narrative.
So now I ask you as an egyptologist...
...Did any of these events align with history?
There are certainly elements of the story
Which could be tied into archeological evidence.
Okay.
But also, there are big problems.
Particularly to do with chronology.
First, if you sort of add up the numbers of years in the bible,
It suggests the whole thing took place around 1450 bc.
-Uh-huh. -But there is absolutely no evidence at that point
Of any large grouping of people leaving the country.
-No huge exodus happening at that time. -No.
100 years earlier, however,
There is clear evidence of this sort of thing happening.
-Hmm. -When a large number of semites left egypt...
...And moved into canaan.
So some of the events are historical...
...But their sequence is jumbled.
Yeah.
It's important to recognize that this overall narrative as we have it today,
Was being pieced together by a group of people
1,000 years after the events in question.
-Right. -And they probably had in front of them
Folk tales, little bits of, what you might call, genuine history.
Which they were trying to produce this overarching origin story
For the people of israel.
So right now we have more mystery than history here.
So how do we investigate this?
Can we find evidence, either for or against,
The story of moses and exodus?
There are certainly some places where you can look.
And in fact there's somewhere quite close to here
Where we may find a useful clue or two.
I like clues.
-Let's go and have a look. -Come on.
To begin my hunt for the history behind moses
We pile into my truck and head about 20 miles sout from cairo to saqqara.
Saqqara is home to egypt's oldest pyramid,
As well as an immense necropolis, or city of the dead.
Literally thousands of egyptian nobles were entombed here
Near the pharaohs they serve
Now, aidan is bringing me to visit one of them.
-We're just coming up to it down here on the left. -Okay.
-All right, here we are. -All right.
-Let's do this. -Here we go.
Okay, so, what are we here to see?
That tomb there.
[josh] who was buried there
[aidan] okay, it's a vizier
So there's the pharaoh and then below him are two viziers,
Who are effectively the prime ministers of the two halves of egypt.
And so what does he maybe have to do with the story of moses?
We'll have to actually go in and have a look for me to tell you that.
-Inside? -In there, yeah.
[josh] like any good teacher aidan isn't going to make this easy for me.
He figures it's better to sh than to tell.
But I can't help but notice there's a slight impediment to getting inside.
That there does not appear to be a door there,
That appears to be a wall.
Yeah, the tomb has not been entered for a very long time,
And the authorities brick them up to stop tomb raiders getting in.
Okay, so what's our move?
All we need to do now is take the wall down.
Breaking things is my specialty, aidan.
-Great. -We got this.
-Come on. -Let's go.
[josh] aidan has acquired exclusive permission to open this tomb
For the first time in decade
To get ourselves, and you, inside,
We're being assisted by a professional work crew
From the egyptian antiquities authority.
-Here we go, we got some backup here. -Absolutely, yes.
Salaam!
-Hello. -Nice to meet you.
[speaking arabic]
-[speaking arabic] -mmm.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
-It's okay? -Okay.
Oh, boy. [laughs]
-[aidan laughs] -[josh] here we go.
Follow exactly what he's telling you.
-Otherwise you'll bring the whole mountain down. -All right.
It's hammer time.
Kids, ask your parents what that means.
Here we go.
[josh] the entryway behind these bricks
Dates back well over 3,500 years.
So, you know, no pressure.
One brick down, few hundred to go.
[hammer clanging]
We're getting there.
Brick by brick, I widen the opening,
Until we get our first whiff of the air inside.
[whispers] okay.
All right, we got darkness, aidan.
Something back there.
It doesn't smell good, I can tell you that.
Okay, well.
Should we go in?
Let's go.
We're gonna need some lights.
Time to cross the threshold
Out of the 21st century, and into a long-sealed tomb from the time of moses.
One that might reveal whether he was man or myth.
Woah.
[laughs]
This is awesome.
Look at this place!
Woah.
Look at this, it just goes back...
-[aidan] I know. -...And back.
Look at the size of this chamber!
Egyptologist aidan dodson and I have just entered
The long sealed tomb of an egyptian vizier unlike any other.
One that may reveal something about the story of moses.
-Oh, and look at the roof decoration. -Yeah.
That ceiling decoration is gorgeous, isn't it?
[josh] wow! It's beautiful.
The tomb is chiseled into the rock itself.
Posts and beams from previous excavations he
Have been installed to stabilize the ceiling.
[aidan] but the best is behind you josh, look over there.
[josh] wow.
Absolutely stunning.
While aidan knows the conten of the tomb
From the publications of previous excavators,
This is his first time insid
That means we're both getting our bearings.
-All of this is unbelievable. -Mmm-hmm.
What're we looking for?
We're looking for the name of the vizier.
All right, usually these guys plaster their names all over everything
In their tombs, don't they?
They do.
The trouble is this tomb is unfinished and also damaged.
So therefore it's less easy to find undamaged names.
[josh] the tomb owner's nam will be enclosed
Within clusters of hieroglyp along the walls.
So that's where we need to look.
All right, well, should we split up
In a creepy ancient tomb and look for it?
Seems reasonable enough to me.
-Yeah, what could go wrong? -[chuckles]
All right, I'll look back here.
You wanna start on this side?
I will do.
-Okay, here we go. -Right.
[josh] aidan's insistence that we find the name of this vizier
Would normally be a welcome challenge.
But I soon realize this particular tomb
Is more like an underground maze.
Goin' down.
Woah.
[hushed] wow.
This is unbelievable.
[whispers] look at this.
So these appear to be human remains...
...From the last excavation that was done here in the tomb.
And there are thousands of bones here.
What we don't see here are any...
...Decorations of any kind.
The walls are just raw in this part of the tomb.
No paintings.
No inscriptions.
Nothing.
And here...
...It looks like we have...
...The actual burial shaft.
[exclaims]
Which just goes straight down.
Our vizier...
...Woulda been buried down there.
[exhales]
[yells] aidan!
I'm gonna go down the scary shaft of death.
I'll be back.
[breathless] okay.
I'm down to the next level, which is...
...A tiny wooden platform.
And then it keeps going.
Oh, man.
I literally cannot see the bottom from here.
So, here we go.
[pants]
This is the great length I've ever gone
To find out someone's name.
Well there was this one girl in college but... Nevermind.
[whispers] okay.
Oh, my word.
Wow.
So here we are, these are the actual burial chambers,
For not just the vizier but his whole family
Would have been buried down here.
What I don't see down here,
Are any inscriptions at all.
We'll keep looking in these side chambers
But I don't think it's down here.
The further I explore the pitch black chambers of this tomb,
The more I start to worry I might become a permanent resident.
Lucky for me, aidan has a sharp eye.
[aidan yelling] josh!
Yeah?
I think I may have found it.
Coming!
Comin' up!
Find something?
-You got it? -[aidan] yup.
Found it.
-[josh] where? -It's right in the corner here.
Right in the far corner.
The bottom is a little seated man.
[josh] yes.
Above it is that
Flattened oval and little stripe next to it.
[josh] so this is our vizier
-[aidan] it is. -All right.
And his name is?
His name is aper-el.
Aper-el.
Okay.
And why is that significant?
Well, what's exciting about that is it's not an egyptian name.
-His name is not egyptian? -Not at all.
So what is it?
It's a semitic name.
[josh] semites in this case refer to the people who, according to exodus,
Left egypt and would later be known as the hebrews or israelites.
Moses, who is said to have been raised in the pharaoh's court,
Was their earliest named leader.
It is therefore remarkable that here in ancient egypt,
At the possible time of mose we have archeological eviden of a semite
Serving as a high-ranking member of the pharaoh's cour
There are interesting biblical links here too.
The "l" in the name, "aperel is how god is referred to in the torah,
And appears in other biblical names like daniel and raphael.
And aperel's resume is every bit as intriguing as his name.
Among his many titles listed on the walls is, "child of the palace."
Meaning he likely grew up alongside the pharaoh, just like moses.
Another interesting thing is that aperel died under king akhenaten.
-Mmm-hmm. The sun king. -Yeah. Indeed.
Who introduced what looks like a monotheistic religion into egypt.
Right. Akhenaten is this renegade pharaoh
Who basically says, "all of these gods
That we've been worshipping for a very long time,
We're gonna chuck all them out, and we're gonna worship the sun."
This monotheism didn't last long for the egyptians,
But it stuck for other emerging religions.
Some people have wondered, "could this have some kind of influence
-On the hebrew idea of one god?" -right.
To be clear, nobody is claiming that thi aperel is mosel himself,
But confirmation that a high-ranking semite who grew up in the palace
At a time when one god was worshipped,
Makes the story of moses and egypt feel much more possible.
Still, I have many more questions about the exodus story.
So I thank aidan kickstarting my journey,
And I hit the road to look for more evidence.
Okay, so we've seen that a man like moses
Could have come to prominence in ancient egypt.
That part of the story is plausible,
But what about the miracles described in exodus?
Do they require a religious leap of faith?
Should we dismiss them as, uh, literary license?
Or can science explain, or help explain, how moses became a master of miracles?
Specifically, those plagues
With the pharaoh still refusing to let moses' people go,
God rains down a succession of horrific plagues on the egyptians
To further the negotiations
First, the nile turns to blood, followed by infestations of frogs,
Lice, flies and the death of livestock.
Next up, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts and three day of darkness.
On face value, these events seem utterly supernatural, or were they?
To find out, I make my way to an enigmatic structure on the banks of the nile.
This chamber may look like a temple, but in fact, it's a tool.
This is known as the nilometer,
A massive column covered in these precisely-cut notches
To measure the depth of the nile and predict its behavior.
It is impossible to overstat the importance of the nile in ancient egypt.
The river's annual flood brought agricultural life,
But if something went wrong it also brought death.
Too much flooding, and crops would be destroyed.
Too little flooding, and nothing would grow.
The nilometer allowed ancient egyptians
To forecast harvests and better stave off famine
Okay, so what does any of this have to do with moses?
Well, some scientists have suggested that a disaster in the nile
Could have actually caused some of the legendary ten plagues.
Impossible? Well, maybe not if the nile became infested with toxic, red algae.
Also known as "red tide," it happens when algae bloom out of control,
Staining water so that it appears like blood.
Red tide can also kill off some species,
While causing population explosion of others,
Such as frogs, lice, flies and locusts.
The insects could then sprea disease to livestock and to people,
Manifesting as pestilence and boils.
But what about hail and darkness?
Well, climate scientists now theorize that a volcanic eruption
On the greek island of santorini in 1500 bce,
Could have spread ash all the way to egypt, blocking out the sun.
Those darkening skies would certainly have appeare to people across egypt
As the work of divine forces
So, did the plagues actually happen?
Well, it depends on what you believe.
And whether caused by nature of the wrath of god,
They remain a cautionary tale about angering the almighty,
A horror story in the ethic of the bible,
As mysterious as the life of moses himself.
Now that I've seen proof tha a semitic person held high position in ancient egypt,
And the possibility that the plagues could be inspire by real-world events,
I'm starting to feel hopefu about the idea of a historic moses,
But I want some hard facts.
And that brings us to one character in the exodus story
That we should be able to easily verify, moses' nemesis, the pharaoh
So, now I set off on a new mission
To find the egyptian king who defied both moses and his god.
[josh] from my investigatio into the mysteries of moses
I'm on a search to identify the pharaoh from exodus.
The bible never mentions him by name,
But if you've seen the ten commandments, you know who he is.
Yep, it's yul brynner, I mean, ramesses.
To get to know ramesses better, I'm drivin 450 miles south of cairo
To the ancient capital of luxor.
On the east bank of the nile, the world of the living
And the ruined majesty of luxor and karnak,
And on the west bank, the land of the dead,
Home to the valley of the kings.
And this.
The tumbledown remnants of a mortuary temple known as the ramesseum.
Inside the eerie ruins, I fi my old friend, egyptologist bahaa gaber.
-Bahaa. -[bahaa gaber] josh. Hey.
[josh] hey! How are you, my friend?
-[gaber] fine, and you? -I'm great, thanks.
-This is spectacular. -[gaber] yeah, this is the ramesseum temple.
-So this is devoted to ramesses ii? -Yes.
Okay, now, every story needs a bad guy,
And for many years people have said that this guy, ramesses ii,
He's the pharaoh from the old testament.
-So, and he is a serious villain in exodus. -[gaber] mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
[josh] I mean, we're talkin darth vader level, thanos level,
-Moustache twirling bad guy, right? -[gaber chuckles]
So, how is he referred to here in egypt?
-We call him ramesses the great. -Ramesses the great?
-Yes. -Not "ramesses the evil," not "ramesses the bad guy."
And not "ramesses the nasty."
-No, not "ramesses the nasty." the great. -Exactly.
[josh] despite his bad pres in biblical pop culture,
If anyone earned the title of "great," it's ramesses ii
He ruled egypt for 67 years well into his 90s,
Building grand temples to his divinity all over the country.
Here at the ramesseum are the toppled remains
Of one of the largest ancient statues ever found,
A seated colossus of ramesse which once rose more than 60 feet tall.
So why does he have this reputation?
Why do so many people associate the story of exodus with ramesses?
Because when people try to figure out when exactly
Moses lived in egypt, they assumed it that it could happen during
-The 13th century... -[josh] mmm-hmm.
...And because the king ruled egypt a long time, and he was so powerful,
So they assumed that he should be the guy.
[josh] so, if ramesses is supposed to be the bad gu
Then this brings up an important question.
Were there hebrew slaves here in ancient egypt?
Do we have archeological evidence of mass numbers
Of semitic people enslaved here?
-No, we didn't have any evidence for that. -[josh] no evidence?
No evidence.
But what about the people who built these incredible temples?
The people who built the pyramids? Were these built by slaves?
-No, built by workmen. -By workmen.
-[gaber] exactly. -Built by egyptians?
By egyptians.
[josh] contrary to the idea that egypt's
Mightiest monuments were built by slaves,
There is ample evidence of a skilled, local labor force
From excavations of workers burials to ancient graffiti from the workers themselves
But there is no archeologica evidence of a huge army of laboring slaves.
So then where do we get this idea that there are not just slaves,
But israelites here in egypt that are fleeing the country? Where does it come from?
Josh, we have temple very close from here, have these answers.
-[josh] really? -Come with me.
Steps from the ramesseum, bahaa leads me to the nearl obliterated remains
Of the funerary temple of the king, merneptah, son of ramesses ii.
And in the corner is a stele or stone monument, which is covered in writing
And in one spot it says something historic.
-So here's the king right here, yes? -[gaber] yes.
-So, this chronicles all his military accomplishments? -Yes.
Okay, so what's significant here?
Josh, we have something very important here,
-Something shocking. Here. -Okay.
The king said that he defeated the people of israel.
-Israel? -[gaber] yes, and that's the first time
That the word israel had been mentioned outside of the bible.
This is incredible.
-Okay. -Here it mentioned that he took his army
Outside of egypt.
They tried to attack egypt from the north.
-Wait, this is, like, a complete flip... -[gaber] yeah. Right.
...Of the script. So, instead of them being slaves,
-They're actually powerful. They're actually someone... -Yes.
-...That he sees as an invading force. -[gaber] right.
[josh] so, is there any evidence, historically,
That semitic people were ever driven out of egypt from inside its borders?
-It's happened. -It did happen?
Yes, but when, 300 years before the time of the king ramesses.
-Before ramesses? -Yes.
The hyksos people.
[josh] hundreds of years before the possible time of moses,
There are records in egypt from the land of canaan,
What is today in the area of israel and the palestinia territories.
But they weren't here as a group of slaves, rather
They were traders and even rulers.
One group of canaanites actually lorded over lower egypt for a time,
Before being defeated by another group of semites known as the hyksos,
Who were eventually driven out of egypt.
You have these people that are from the land of canaan,
And they're not slaves, they are invaders. Is there a linkage here?
Is the story of exodus somehow inspired by the hyksos leaving egypt?
-And they were run out by the pharaoh. -By a pharaoh. Yeah.
[josh] there's a pattern emerging here.
Events from exodus seem to have
Compelling similarities to recorded history,
But often at a slightly different time, or under different circumstances.
So, could the hyksos be the true israelites of the exodus?
To find out, and to keep hunting for a historical moses,
There's only one thing to do flee the same direction they did,
Out of egypt and into the sinai.
Of course, when the israelit did it,
Moses led them on a unique shortcut.
This is the red sea.
In the bible, moses is desperate to get his people from here
All the way over the sinai peninsula, about 15 miles away.
Lucky for him, he has some divine backup.
Okay, let's do this. Can I get a staff?
Really? Okay. [clears throat]
The host of this show will do battle for us.
Behold the might hand of josh!
Part! Do the... Do the thing!
Was worth a try.
According to the story from exodus, as well as from hollywood,
The israelites had their bac to the red sea
As the pharaoh's army was closing in.
So moses raised his staff, and the red sea miraculousl parted before them.
The israelites ran through safely to the other side,
As for the pursuing egyptian army, the passage collapsed midway.
Which cecil b. Demille pulled off by pouring water over jell-o, by the way.
Pretty effective.
So is there any scientific basis for this?
One recent theory is that we've been reading the bible wrong.
The hebrew name of the body of water moses parted is yam suph.
Yam suph means, "the sea of reeds," or, "the reed sea."
Which might not refer to this body of water at all
But's a part of the nile del to the north.
The bible speaks of a strong east wind
That blew just before the sea parted.
And it turns out that the sea of reeds, much like parts of the red sea here,
Has a unique topography. Hang on a second, I'll show you.
Ah! Ah, that's cold.
[shouting] the waters here are really shallow!
Recent computer modelling has shown that a 60 mile an hour wind
Blowing for eight hours in shallow marshland,
Could push back the waters and expose a land bridge.
And if the wind died down just after the israelites crossed,
A wall of rushing water could have engulfed the pursuing egyptian army.
But even if it were scientifically possible,
What are the odds that the winds would blow right when moses needed them?
Or that they would blow in the israelites' favor?
It would be a tremendous stroke of luck or, dare I say, divine intervention.
And since god has better things to do than perform a miracle on television,
I'm taking the long route,
North up the coast of the red sea until I cros from africa into asia
And the vast deserts of the sinai peninsula,
26,000 square miles of sand
The sinai is also the setting for perhaps the most consequential moment
In the book of exodus,
Because somewhere out here, somewhere amidst all this sand
On top of a place known as mount sinai,
Moses receives the ten commandments.
In the book of exodus, three months after escaping egypt,
The children of israel reach mount sinai,
And moses is called to the summit where god directly bestows upon him
The unbreakable laws of his covenant,
Ten commandments carved into stone tablets.
And believe it or not, no fewer than six locations
Have laid claim to be mount sinai,
But one above all has emerged as the true holy site.
I pull up at the gate of a fortified monastery
Tucked into the base of an imposing mountain.
In arabic, it's called, jabal musa.
In english, this is mount sinai.
I'm at the base of a mountai believed to be the location of the true mount sinai,
Where moses received the ten commandments from go
The greek orthodox monaster of saint catherine
Was built here in the mid-50 atop one of the oldest christian sites on earth.
Inside the courtyard, I'm warmly welcomed by father justin of sinai.
Father, I feel like I've stepped into another time here.
And the outside looks almost like a fortress.
It was built as a fortress to protect the monks,
To honor this holy place, but also this is the border of the roman empire.
Right.
But the monastery has never been abandoned and never been destroyed in 1700 years.
Wow. What an incredible place.
And there are other connections here to the story of moses,
Like one of the main characters.
[father justin] everything was built here because
This is the place of the burning bush,
And this is the burning bush growing behind the church
Next to the chapel of the burning bush.
Wait, you mean the burning bush?
Like the burning bush from the bible where god speaks to moses?
While the fire is out and the bush
May not be talking to anyon these days,
Its very existence seems miraculous.
It is mentioned by egeria, who came here in the year 383.
So even in 383, she mentions
In the valley there's a garden, and in the garden there's a church
Next to the bush, and the bush is alive to this day,
And sends out green shoots.
So this was described in the fourth century.
-It's been described by pilgrims ever since. -[josh] wow.
That is awesome. This monastery is filled with miraculous things.
Lead on. I want to see what else we have here.
The burning bush.
Father justin brings me insi the monastery's library,
A treasure trove of priceless documents
Stretching back through the centuries.
He's pulled a few volumes for me to examine.
The first one is a 10th century manuscript of--
-I'm sorry, this is a 1000-year-old book? -Yes.
Written on parchment.
It's the text of genesis, exodus and leviticus,
And then it has commentary in the margins.
Many years ago someone took the entire account of genesis and exodus,
And they wrote it out in greek verses.
This is a 16th century manuscript of that text.
This is one of your new books?
[chuckles] and then it's filled with illustrations.
And I believe this is our guy right here, right?
Let's talk about this illustration,
In particular this mountain that moses is standing on.
This is mount sinai or mount horeb in the bible,
And I know that there have been a lot of places put forward
By the historians and theologians over the years
As the possible real location,
But saint catherine's sits at the foot of the place that is really considered...
...Where this happened.
Why is that?
What is it about this place that gives it authenticity and credibility?
Many people ask us, "how do you know that this is the real sinai?"
-[josh] right. -We point out that the prophet, elijah,
Came to horeb, the mountain of god,
And he lived 600 years after moses.
Right, and he knew where it was.
So 600 years after moses, they knew where sinai was.
So when the monks came here,
In the latter third, early fourth centuries,
They also picked up this living heritage
That this was the place where god revealed himself in such a special way.
[josh] it is this stunning continuity of history here
That has led so many to venerate this place.
And it is for that reason that people also attempt to ascend to the summit.
I know that many people come here to visit the monastery
And also to make the ascent to the top of mount sinai.
I'd like to do that. Do you have any advice for a first-time climber?
It's not an easy ascent.
[laughing] okay.
When you make the ascent, you think, "I'll never get there."
But then you finally do arrive and it's such a joy
To see the spectacular landscape.
I can't wait.
So here's something I'd like to give you for the ascent.
This is a bible that I bought in jerusalem in 1978,
The first time I made a pilgrimage there.
When you read the scriptures, they come alive,
Because you're at the very place
And it's something that you can treasure for the rest of your life.
This is really, really special, thank you so much.
I will take very, very good care of it, father.
Thank you so much for time and for showing us this awesome place.
I really appreciate it.
And all the best on your ascent to the peak.
Thank you, father. Cheers.
And so I'm preparing to follow in moses' most arduous footsteps,
To the meeting point between god and man.
The climb is always attempte well before the light of daw
And so the next day, in the frigid desert darknes
I return to the foot of the monastery.
Well, it is about 2:30 in the morning and I'm here at the base of mount sinai.
You know, when we think about moses leading
The israelites through the desert, we think about sweltering heat.
Right now, it's about 28 degrees fahrenheit, it is absolutely freezing.
And between us and the summit is about 2,500 vertical feet
And a nearly three-mile hike in complete darkness.
Let's do it.
Man, it is cold.
And the higher you get, the windier it gets.
Just feels like walking into nothingness.
[exhales] so, as we come through this pass here,
You can hear the wind just sailing through.
It's getting colder and colder.
I've got my trusty king james bible here.
We're about halfway up the mountain and I have to say,
It really does feel so mysterious here.
And it is hard not to feel the parallels
With the description in the book of exodus.
So, much of the talk about sinai is about the weather here.
They say that there's thunder and lightning on the mount
And the people in the camp trembled.
And mount sinai quaked greatly.
And then the lord came down upon mount sinai
To the top of the mount and called moses up.
And moses went.
And I guess, so will we.
Hundreds of pilgrims are here with me today.
They come by the thousands every year to connect
To the spirit of moses and the god he was said to have met on sinai.
[exhales] come on.
You got this.
Man.
Fortunately, the mountain is dotted with simple stone buildings,
Which serve as rest stops for the faithful.
Inside, merchants make fresh bread.
Pilgrims rest and get something warm to drink.
[speaking arabic]
[in english] a hot cup of coffee in this bitter col
Is a bit of a religious experience in itself.
[exhales]
Thou shalt be caffeinated.
Oh, yes. Thank you.
The walls are lined with photos and notes
From people who have made the climb.
After my cup of joe, I hit the trail,
Leaving my own scripture for future travelers.
[indistinct conversation]
Coming into this slot canyon here,
Toward the top of the peak.
Now it gets really rocky and really vertical.
[whispers] okay.
[grunts] come one.
This may be the holiest mountain on earth, but that doesn't make it sof
[exclaiming]
Manna from heaven, that miraculous food
That god delivered to those desert-wandering israelites
Every day of the week except on Sunday, just like chick-fil-a.
But what was this life-sustaining, heaven-sent snack?
Well, some scientists think it may have been a lichen,
A kind of algae that coats the desert floor.
Others believe it was this, a congealed insect secretion
Found in the sap of the tamarisk tree.
Today this stuff is kind of a delicacy.
Sells for about 10 bucks a gram, even though it looks
Like the rocks at the bottom of your fish tank.
Okay, here goes nothing.
Tangy, gummy, sweet aftertaste.
Not bad for congealed insect excrement.
I mean, I wouldn't want to eat it for 40 years.
Manna, anyone?
It's bug [bleep].
[exhales] come on.
[exclaiming]
Yeah, I'm okay. [bleep] ow.
Ugh, my knee.
I suppose it makes sense that in visiting mount sinai I'd end up on one knee.
Okay. I'm okay.
I'm okay. Okay, here we go. Oh, man, that was close.
All right, well, we are getting close.
We're within a quarter mile of the summit, of course, there's one last obstacle.
Actually, there's 750 of them.
These steep, stone stairs that go all the way to the top.
Okay, come on.
These are the steps of penitence,
Which lead to the very top of mount sinai.
Oh, god. Oh. If only I had some sort of sign...
[man] how about we keep walking, it's freezing.
-God? -[man] no, camera department.
Yeah, okay. Here we go.
We are now above most of the other peaks.
You can just see them, their outlines, in the darkness.
Totally exposed here now to the wind. Must be close to the top.
Sort of a bottleneck here as we get close to the top.
It's really a hive of activity.
There are people here from all over the world and from every major religion.
Christians, jews, muslims, hindus.
And people from just about every country in the world.
I heard every accent and language imaginable.
All of them here to experience the summit of this holy place.
They climb because they believe that, like moses,
When they reach the top, they will be in the presence of god.
And as I reach the summit, the same feeling begins to tug within me.
You can see while we're here, the sky is starting to lighten.
The sun will be here soon.
Everyone is now racing to the top, trying to catch the first light.
And there, at the summit of mount sinai, I greet the dawn.
Next time, on expedition unknown,
The conclusion of our epic quest to unlock the mysteries of moses.
As I follow in the prophet's footsteps from the peak of mount sina
And search for evidence that moses led his people through the desert.
In the world of the old testament, this would be an israelite,
This would be someone from the land of canaan.
This is pretty extraordinary.
And a relic from the exodus may be lost in the depths of the sea of galilee.
It cannot be natural, it has to be manmade.
Can you show me where it is?
The water's warm, though, right?
No.
Okay, great.
Slight hill here.
Holy moses! [yells]
Fire!
It's an adventure with only one commandment.
Thou shalt watch.
I'd say that about sums it up.