El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele')

A Ptolemaic myth of Shu and Geb, read by some as an echo of the darkness and the drowning at the sea

Egypt & the Exodus · inscription, temple / altar · Debated · found 1890

How El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') was found

Found at Tell el-Arish in northern Sinai, tipped over and in use as a cattle trough. Griffith copied and translated the text in 'The Antiquities of Tell el Yahudiyeh' (1890). Georges Goyon re-edited it in 1936; the most recent full study is by the Ismailia Museum team (naos no. 2248).

What it is

A shrine (naos) hollowed out of a single block of dark granite, about 1.4 m tall, of the kind that once held a god's statue in a temple. Its outer faces carry about 74 lines of hieroglyphs. The text is not a historical annal; it is a temple myth about the god Shu ruling Egypt, his son Geb, and the goddess Tefnut.

Why it matters for the Bible

The myth says that in the days of Shu 'a great disturbance' fell on the land, with storm and darkness for many days so that 'no one could leave the palace' and no one could see the face of the person next to him. Shu's followers depart, 'the evildoers' (the children of Apophis) are pursued to the east, and a king-god passes through a 'place of the whirlpool' near a town called Pi-Kharoti (or Pekharti). Immanuel Velikovsky in Ages in Chaos (1952) read this as an Egyptian memory of the plague of darkness, the Israelites leaving, and Pharaoh drowning in the sea, matching Pi-Kharoti with the biblical Pi-Hahiroth (Exodus 14:2). Ron Wyatt, Lennart Möller, and many websites and videos have repeated the claim. It matters because it shows how a real, genuine Egyptian text can be pressed into a shape it does not have: in the actual story the god survives the whirlpool and becomes stronger, and the episodes Velikovsky joined together belong to different scenes with different characters.

The Hebrew word: CHO-shech

חֹשֶׁךְ

חֹשֶׁךְ is pronounced CHO-shech and means darkness — the ninth plague, 'a darkness that may be felt' (Strong's H2822).

People this discovery connects to

• Pharaoh — פַּרְעֹה (Par-OH) — great house (Egyptian title of the king)
• Moshe (Moses) — מֹשֶׁה (Mo-SHEH) — drawn out (of the water)

Places

• Pi-Hahiroth — פִּי הַחִירֹת (Pee ha-chee-ROTE) — 'mouth of the gorges' (uncertain; an Egyptian place name in Hebrew dress)
• Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) — יַם־סוּף (Yahm-SOOF) — sea of reeds

Events

Plague of darkness (Exodus 10) · Pursuit of Israel to Pi-Hahiroth and the crossing of the sea (Exodus 14)

El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') in Scripture

Exodus 10:22-23 Three days of thick darkness in which 'no one rose from his place'; the naos describes days of darkness in which no one could leave the palace or see his neighbor.

Exodus 14:27-28 The sea returns and covers Pharaoh's army; Velikovsky matched this with the naos's 'place of the whirlpool,' though in the Egyptian text the god passes through it and lives.

Exodus 14:2 Israel camps 'before Pi-Hahiroth'; the naos names a town Pi-Kharoti/Pekharti, which popular writers equate with it.

Questions people ask

What is El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele')?
A shrine (naos) hollowed out of a single block of dark granite, about 1.4 m tall, of the kind that once held a god's statue in a temple. Its outer faces carry about 74 lines of hieroglyphs. The text is not a historical annal; it is a temple myth about the god Shu ruling Egypt, his son Geb, and the goddess Tefnut.

When was El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') discovered?
It was found in 1890 by Reported by Egyptian antiquities officials and published by F. Ll. Griffith (Egypt Exploration Fund, 1890); the object had been known locally for years, at Tell el-Arish (ancient Rhinocolura), northern Sinai.

Where is El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') today?
Ismailia Museum, Ismailia, Egypt (inventory no. 2248).

Which Bible verses does El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') relate to?
Exodus 10:22-23, Exodus 14:27-28, Exodus 14:2.

Is El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele') authentic?
The naos is a genuine, well-published Egyptian monument. The Exodus reading is rejected by Egyptologists and by most biblical scholars: the text is a late (Ptolemaic) temple myth, its scenes were rearranged and its place names adjusted by Velikovsky to fit, the god does not die, and darkness and storm are stock features of Egyptian chaos myths. It is presented here so readers can weigh a claim they will meet often online.

Related discoveries

• בָּרָד
  Tempest Stele of Ahmose I
  An Egyptian king's record of a great storm, darkness, and flooding at the start of the New Kingdom
• חֹשֶׁךְ
  Thera (Santorini) Eruption and the Plagues
  A Bronze Age volcanic disaster proposed as the natural engine behind the plagues of Egypt
• רָעָב
  The Famine Stela (Sehel Island)
  A Ptolemaic rock inscription telling of seven years of famine under Djoser
• מֶלֶךְ חָדָשׁ
  The Hyksos Expulsion: Kamose's Stelae and Ahmose son of Ebana
  Egyptian records of driving out the Asiatic rulers, background to 'a new king who knew not Yosef'
• שִׁלֻּחִים
  Gezer Tenth-Century Destruction Layer
  A burned city that may be the pharaoh's 'dowry' destruction
• פַּרְעֹה
  Mummies of Ramesses II and Merneptah
  The two pharaohs most often named as 'Pharaoh of the Exodus', both found in their tombs' aftermath

Sources

• Griffith, F. Ll., 'The Antiquities of Tell el Yahudiyeh and Miscellaneous Work in Lower Egypt', EEF Memoir 7 (1890), ch. on the Shrine of El Arish
• Goyon, G., 'Les travaux de Chou et les tribulations de Geb d'après le naos 2248 d'Ismaïlia', Kêmi 6 (1936)
• Velikovsky, I., Ages in Chaos (1952), ch. 'The Shrine of El-Arish'
• 'Velikovsky and the El Arish Shrine' (critical review)
• Burns, P., 'El-Arish Revisited' (summary of the Margolis/Forrest critiques)

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