Wadi Feiran or Wadi Faran is Sinai's largest and widest

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

. It is an

intermittent stream Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years. Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the Earth's surface. The extent of temporary ...

and rises from the mountains around

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( , ), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai ...

, at 2500 m above sea level. It is one of the alleged sites of

Rephidim Rephidim or Refidim () is one of the places visited by the Israelites in the biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt. Biblical account This episode is described in the Book of Exodus. The Israelites under Moses have come from the Wilde ...

, a station of the Exodus where

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

struck a rock caused it to spring water, allowing his people the

Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which pre ...

to drink. Wadi Feiran is an

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

. Its upper reaches, around Jebel Musa, are known as the Wadi el-Sheikh. It empties into the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Gulf of Suez The Gulf of Suez (; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf was formed within a relative ...

southeast of

Abu Zenima Abu Zenima () is a coastal city in South Sinai Governorate, Egypt. It has an area of . History In 2009, a whale 10 metres long and weighing 10 tonnes was found on its Red Sea beach. The minke whale was presumed to have lost its way from the I ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

identified the area as the site of Paran. The nearby hill is the Tell Feiran. __NOTOC__

Feiran Oasis

The Feiran Oasis, formerly known as El Hesweh, runs about of the length of the wadi, above its mouth.

Bedouins of Sinai

The

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

s, nomadic people who lived in goat tents but now live in stone huts, traditionally offer their hospitality to guests at Wadi Feiran and the Feiran Oasis, near

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

. The Bedouins are generally honored to offer hospitality to travelers. They may offer tea, coffee and, as recently as 2003, may have felt obligated to slaughter an animal for their guest(s). Werner Braun, a journalistic photographer, photographed the Bedouins at Wadi Ferian. Travel guides, however, advise visitors not to wear out their welcome, reporting that Bedouin hosts believe a reasonable stay is three days: the first day is for greeting, the second day is for eating, and the third day is for speaking. By the fourth morning, the visitor who is not on his way out is as unwelcome "as the spotted snake". Pilgrims and interested tourists come here and to nearby

. For a time, a monk from Saint Catherine's also maintained a small church and farmstead at Wadi Feiran.

References

Bibliography

External links

Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition

{{coord, 28.7187, N, 33.6202, E, source:wikidata, display=title Feiran Geography of Egypt Feiran

Feiran Oasis

Bedouins of Sinai

See also

References

Bibliography

External links