Red sea crossing

In the story told in the Bible and Koran, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night."

In reality, wind, hydrodynamics and the unique topography of the Nile Delta may have had the same effect - with the same miraculous results for the Israelites.

The study by the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado replaces the hand of God with a 139km east wind blowing for at least 12 hours.  It also suggests that the epic crossing of the Red Sea happened 120km north of Suez, where an ancient branch of the Nile approached a shallow coastal lagoon, and near the modern Port Said.

Otherwise, one of the study's authors claims: "The simulations match fairly closely with the account in Exodus."  In that account Moses and the Israelites are driven from Egypt by the Pharoah's army, which pursues them across the Red Sea only to be drowned when the waters return to their natural state.

If the pursuit took place across the lagoon known as the Lake of Tanis, "the parting of the waters can be understood through fluid dynamics," according to Carl Drews, the lead author of Dynamics of Wind Setdown at Suez and the Eastern Nile Delta.

Using computer models and modern understanding of the phenomenon of "wind setdown" - by which strong, steady winds have been shown to push back large volumes of water temporarily - Drews concluded that a gale of the kind described in the Bible could have created a land bridge 3.2km wide and 4.8km long and open for perhaps four hours.