<P> The Hebrew term for the place of the crossing is "Yam Suph". Although this has traditionally been thought to refer to the salt water inlet located between Africa and the Arabian peninsula, known in English as the Red Sea, this is a mistranslation from the Greek Septuagint, and Hebrew suph never means "red" but rather "reeds". (While it is not relevant to the identification of the body of water, suph also puns on the Hebrew suphah ("storm") and soph ("end"), referring to the events of the Exodus). </P> <P> General scholarly opinion is that the Exodus story combines a number of traditions, one of them at the "Reed Sea" (Lake Timsah, with the Egyptians defeated when the wheels of their chariots become clogged) and another at the far deeper Red Sea, allowing the more dramatic telling of events . </P> <P> Reeds tolerant of salt water flourish in the shallow string of lakes extending from Suez north to the Mediterranean Sea . Kenneth Kitchen and James Hoffmeier state that these reedy lakes and marshes along the isthmus of Suez are acceptable locations for yam suf . The ancient yam suf is not confined to the modern Red Sea . Hoffmeier equates yam suf with the Egyptian term pa - tjufy (also written p3 twfy) from the Ramsside period, which refers to lakes in the eastern Nile delta . He also describes references to p3 twfy in the context of the Island of Amun, thought to be modern Tell el - Balamun . Tell el - Balamun was the most northerly city of Pharaonic Egypt about 29 km southwest of Damietta, located at 31.2586 North, 31.5714 East . </P> <P> No archaeological evidence has been found that confirms the crossing of the Red Sea ever took place . Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and formerly Egypt's Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, said of the Exodus and Passover story, the Israelite's' biblical flight from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering the desert in search of the Promised Land, "Really, it's a myth...Sometimes as archaeologists we have to say that never happened because there is no historical evidence ." </P>

What happened after the israelites crossed the red sea