When the children of Israel covenanted with God to be His people and to keep His Laws after He spoke His Ten Commandments, this was in essence a contract:

EXO 24:3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.

They had collectively made a vow. The next morning, Moses built the altar and erected the pillars. The pillars were a memorial of the contract. Twelve were erected to signify that the contract was with each of the twelve tribes.

Looking down from a plateau just above the altar, about 200 yards to the left are several extremely large boulders setting in a line. We believe these are the remains of those 12 pillars. In this area of millions of rocks, it's difficult to be precise, but it appears that there are 4 at the original location (one is fallen), while there are 7 or 8 boulders of the same general size lying scattered in the "holy precinct". It is quite logical to expect that over the years, some may have toppled due to seismic activity or any number of reasons. These "rocks" should be termed "boulders" because of their large size estimated to be at least 20 to 30 feet along their longest side.

DEU 9:21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

Though the Bible speaks a great deal about Moses striking the rock and bringing forth water at Rephidim and Kadesh Barnea, this is the only specific reference to a stream or "brook" that came from Mt. Sinai, and there is no mention that he struck the rock there. Today, there is no "brook", or stream in the region, much less in this area. In fact, Saudi Arabia has no river at all, however, there is an awesome amount of evidence at Jebel el Lawz of not only a "brook" coming from the mountain, but of a very elaborate water supply system, complete with a lake and wells.

I earlier mentioned that at one time Ron had thought the double-walled "columns" they had found at the site in 1985 may have been the "bounds" set by Moses. Yet, he had questioned this identification simply because they looked like wells. When we had access to abundant photos and videos of the site, we saw that they were indeed wells.

The great multitude had just come from Egypt, a country very dependent on the ability to divert water into reservoirs and canals. And it makes perfect sense to think that they employed that technology at the place that would be their home for almost a year. There were at least a million people (conservative estimate) encamped at Mt. Sinai, probably closer to 2 -3 million (about the size of the 3rd or 4th largest city in the U.S.) They had flocks and herds. They needed water and a LOT of it every day.

On the previous page we've included a photograph of the "holy" area at the foot of the mountain. It is unmarked. We've included this same photo WITH markings to point out the features present. If anything should be obstructed in the marked photos, refer back to the unmarked one.

I've filled in the area of the lake and the stream coming from the mountain with gray. Another stream fed into the lake on the far right, out of view in the above photo. The black "dots" mark the general location of the stone wells. To the far left is another row of wells though their location can't be seen in this photo. A guard shack and fence were erected after Ron showed the site to the Saudis and convinced them of its authenticity, and the guard shack's position is marked in the above photo, and can be seen in the one below. The below photo views the area from the front. I've marked the location of the wells whose position can't be seen in the above photo.

While exploring the site in 1985 with Samran and his work crew, they found a large number of very large stone "columns" with just a few inches extending above the ground. Because there was a line of these which extended along the lake bordering the "holy precinct", Ron agreed that they probably were the "bounds" set by Moses. But there were several on the other side of the lake, opposite the "holy precinct", and there was a line of them many hundred of feet from the lake, beyond where the guard shack is now located. Over the years, Ron pondered these, then when our friends provided us with the wonderful photos of the complex from the plateau above, the picture became clear.

The biggest question was "Why would they have gone to so much trouble to make the "columns" hollow with double walls if their sole purpose was to serve as a barrier"? A solid structure would have been much easier to construct and more durable. They were hollow for another reason.

Also, why were they buried in the earth? If enough debris had fallen over the years to cover them, why were there so many other ancient structures and remains in the immediate vicinity that we NOT covered at all? There is only one answer - they were wells.

They measure several of these and they were all approximately 18 foot in diameter. They completely dug out one along the bank of the lake and it rested on bedrock at 22 feet.

Based on their design, the fact that they extend to the bedrock, and their locations all around the lake, we believe they served as water filters. The dry lake bottom is rocky and sandy. As the water from the streams poured down the mountainside and rushed towards the reservoir or lake, a great deal of that water would have soaked into the dry, rocky soil along its banks. Some of it would have seeped under the double-walls of the wells, through the rock and sand which would have purified it to some extent.

The wells are buried in earthen embankments along much of the perimeter of the lake and their tops are not much higher than the lake level. Water seeks its level, so the water would rise in the wells.

After all, this encampment was home to a population of people roughly equal to the 4th or 5th largest cities in the United States. Now that we can see this very elaborate lake and well system, it makes perfect sense. They not only needed water for themselves, but they had many, many flocks which had to be watered. Which leads us to the next question: "Did the animals drink directly out of the lake"?