1500–1200 BCE
On a plateau in south-western Sinai, a shrine of Egyptian miners where Semitic workers left some of the oldest known alphabetic inscriptions.
Credit: Einsamer Schütze · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Serabit el-Khadim, on top of a mountain plateau in the south-west of the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt, preserves the ruins of a temple of Hathor, the "Lady of Turquoise". For centuries, in the Middle and then the New Kingdom, the pharaohs sent expeditions here to extract turquoise from the nearby mines. Semitic-speaking workers carved the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions here, one of the earliest witnesses to alphabetic writing and a distant ancestor of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin alphabets.
Let us be clear: no archaeological evidence connects Serabit el-Khadim with Moses or the Hebrews, and the Bible does not mention the place. It is a context site, showing what the Egyptian presence in the Sinai desert looked like and how the Semitic groups employed by Egypt lived. Theories that see traces of Moses here circulate widely; they are presented below, together with the view of specialists.
After the crossing of the sea, the book of Exodus leads the people into the desert, towards Sinai. The following verse does not speak of Serabit el-Khadim: it is quoted here as the setting of the story, to recall the kind of arid landscape in which the wilderness narratives unfold.
"So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water."
Exodus 15:22 (KJV)
וַיַּסַּע מֹשֶׁה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּם־סוּף וַיֵּצְאוּ אֶל־מִדְבַּר־שׁוּר וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת־יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְלֹא־מָצְאוּ מָיִם
שמות טו, כב
The route of the Exodus depends on where Mount Sinai was, which is itself debated. If one follows the Christian tradition that places it at Jebel Musa, near St Catherine's Monastery, the route crosses the south-west of the peninsula, not far from the Egyptian mining districts. Some Bible atlases thus place the station of Dophkah (Numbers 33:12) near Wadi Maghara, another Egyptian mining site close to Serabit: this is a hypothesis that nothing allows us to verify.
"And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah."
Numbers 33:12 (KJV)
וַיִּסְעוּ מִמִּדְבַּר־סִין וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּדָפְקָה
במדבר לג, יב
Serabit el-Khadim shows that Sinai was not an empty desert: Egypt organised seasonal expeditions there, with soldiers, scribes, miners and interpreters. Workers from Canaan encountered Egyptian religion and adapted its signs to write their own language. This world, on the border between Egypt and Asia, is the backdrop to the story of Israel in Egypt. For the whole narrative, see the period page The Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.
The temple was founded under Senusret I (12th Dynasty, 20th century BC) around two sacred caves cut into the rock: one dedicated to Hathor, the other to Sopdu, god of Egypt's eastern borderlands. In the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III sent expedition after expedition: dozens of texts from his reign are known in Sinai, and Egyptologists count between eighteen and twenty expeditions to Serabit under this king alone. He had a hall known as the "Shrine of the Kings" built, completed under Amenemhat IV.
In the New Kingdom, the temple was extended by a succession of rooms and courts, to a length of about 70 metres. The names of Thutmose III, Amenhotep III and the Ramesside kings appear there; Ramesses VI is the last New Kingdom king whose name is attested in the temple, in the 12th century BC. The site was then abandoned.
The most striking sight is the sandstone stelae standing along the temple's processional ways. Expedition leaders recorded the date, the king's name, the members of the mission and sometimes the hardships they faced: one stela, from year 6 of Amenemhat III, reports an exceptional expedition carried out in summer, whereas missions usually set out in winter. Hathor bears the epithet "Lady of Turquoise" on them.
The site has been known to travellers since the 19th century; the painter David Roberts drew it in 1839. The first comprehensive excavation was carried out by Flinders Petrie in the winter of 1904-1905 and published in 1906 (Researches in Sinai). Among the finds is a small head of Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III, now in Cairo. The hieroglyphic inscriptions were edited by Alan Gardiner and Eric Peet.
In the temple and near the mines, excavations revealed about thirty inscriptions carved in signs that look like hieroglyphs, but in a very small number. In 1916, the Egyptologist Alan Gardiner proposed the key: each sign borrows an Egyptian image and stands for the first sound of the Semitic word for it. The ox head (alef) stands for "a", the house (bet) for "b", and so on. This is the principle of the alphabet.
On several objects Gardiner read the sequence l-b-ʿ-l-t, "to Baalat", meaning "the Lady": the Semitic name the workers gave to the goddess the Egyptians called Hathor. This reading is now widely accepted; the rest of the texts, often short and damaged, remain largely debated.
The most famous of these objects is a small sandstone sphinx found by Petrie in the temple and kept in the British Museum (EA 41748). It bears a hieroglyphic inscription naming Hathor and, on its side and base, a Proto-Sinaitic inscription in which Gardiner recognised "Baalat". This "bilingual" text played a decisive role in the decipherment.
Specialists hesitate between two ranges: the Middle Kingdom (c. 1900-1800 BC), supported in particular by comparison with the Wadi el-Hol inscriptions in Upper Egypt, and the New Kingdom (c. 1500 BC). Either way, these graffiti were made by Canaanite workers or other Semitic speakers employed by the Egyptian expeditions. Their system, simplified over the centuries, led to the Phoenician alphabet, then to Paleo-Hebrew script and to the Greek and Latin alphabets.
🔎 A note
Other missions added to the corpus: the Harvard and Catholic University of America expeditions (1927-1935) discovered new inscriptions, published in particular by Romain Butin. The numbering "Sinai 345" onwards follows Gardiner's catalogue.
The link between these inscriptions and the Bible has long fuelled popular theories. Some authors have proposed reading the Proto-Sinaitic texts as Hebrew and recognising biblical figures in them: this is the case of Douglas Petrovich (The World's Oldest Alphabet, 2016). In 2025, Michael Bar-Ron proposed reading in two inscriptions (Sinai 357 and 361) the words "this is from Moses" and "a saying of Moses".
These readings are rejected by most epigraphers and Egyptologists, who dispute the identification of the signs, often very worn, and the method of reconstruction. Several scholars also point out that "Mose" was a common element in Egyptian names: even a correct reading would not necessarily refer to the biblical Moses.
⚠️ In short
No inscription, object or archaeological layer at Serabit el-Khadim attests the presence of Moses or the Hebrews. The site sheds light on the world in which the Exodus story took shape: Egyptian expeditions, Semitic workers and the birth of the alphabet later used to write Hebrew.
A comparable Hathor shrine, linked to copper mines, can be visited on the Israeli side at Timna, in the Arava.
Serabit el-Khadim is not a site laid out like an open-air museum. The temple stands on top of a plateau, inland, about forty kilometres east of Abu Zenima on the Gulf of Suez coast. Access is by a track and then a climb on foot: a steep path of about an hour and a half, or a gentler route fitted with steps on the western side. Recent travel accounts describe a base camp where Bedouin guides can be found.
In practice, the visit is organised with an agency or a local guide, from Abu Zenima, the St Catherine area or the South Sinai resorts, with the permits required by the Egyptian authorities. No official opening hours or reliable prices are published online: ask a local organiser and, for the site itself, the Egyptian antiquities authorities. The traditional Mount Sinai lies in the same region.
⚠️ Travel advice (as of 29 September 2026)
The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to the northern part of the South Sinai Governorate, beyond the St Catherine-Nuweiba road, except for the coastal areas: Serabit el-Khadim, inland north-west of St Catherine, appears to fall within this area. France formally advises against the part of Sinai north of a Suez-Taba line and warns of poorly marked no-go desert zones. Israel maintains a level 4 warning, its highest, for Sinai. Check your own government's official advice before planning a trip.
Serabit el-Khadim: the Temple of Hathor and the origins of the alphabet
Serabit el-Khadim, plateau in south-western Sinai (South Sinai Governorate), about forty kilometres east of Abu Zenima
GPS coordinates : 29.0367, 33.4594
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In the heart of the South Sinai mountains, a Christian tradition sixteen centuries old places the burning bush and the giving of the Law here. Yet the identification of biblical Sinai is still debated.
In the Arava Valley, a red sandstone landscape where the Egypt of the Ramesside pharaohs mined copper: a context site for understanding the desert of the Exodus story.
Nothing allows us to say so. The Bible does not mention the place, and no inscription or remain there attests the presence of Moses or the Hebrews. The site only sheds light on the Egyptian and mining context of Sinai.
About thirty short inscriptions carved by Semitic-speaking workers using signs borrowed from hieroglyphs. Each sign stands for the first sound of the word it depicts: this is the principle of the alphabet, from which Phoenician, ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin descend.
Alan Gardiner, in 1916, understood the principle of the system and read the sequence l-b-ʿ-l-t, "to Baalat", the Semitic name of the goddess equated with Hathor. Much of the text remains debated.
In the British Museum, London (inventory number EA 41748). It bears both a hieroglyphic inscription naming Hathor and a Proto-Sinaitic inscription.
Readings along these lines have been proposed, notably in 2025, but most specialists reject them, disputing the identification of the signs. "Mose" was also a common element in Egyptian names.
Hathor protected distant lands and miners; in Sinai she bore the title "Lady of Turquoise". The royal expeditions that came for turquoise dedicated stelae and offerings to her.
The site is visited as a field excursion, with a Bedouin guide and permits, and requires a climb on foot. Current travel advice is unfavourable for the interior of northern South Sinai: check it before any plans.
