<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> <P> The theme of Moses crossing the Red Sea was taken up by the panegyrists of Constantine the Great and applied to the battle of the Milvian Bridge (312). The theme enjoyed a vogue during the fourth century on carved sarcophagi: at least twenty - nine have survived in full or in fragments . Eusebius of Caesarea cast Maxentius, drowned in the Tiber, in the role of Pharaoh, both in his Ecclesiastical History and in his eulogistic Life of Constantine . </P>

Where did the parting of the red sea take place