The Red Sea is 180–300 kilometers wide, and the long narrow trough, the deepest part, is 1,200–2,600 meters below the water surface. We may choose to believe that the crossing was made at the narrowest point, along the shallowest bottom (although these two requirements are not compatible). One recorded depth along the axial line is a bit more than 1,200 meters, or 4,000 feet. From the simple geometry of the case, the fleeing people would be required to walk at least 180 kilometers (112.5 miles) if the route were straight. However, the coast is marked by a wide band of coral reefs which provide rugged relief (at many places five hundred or so meters high, at very steep angles), and the sea floor is tectonically-controlled and irregular, with no road or smooth surface for pedestrians to use. Therefore, the path was more nearly 220 kilometers (about 140 miles). The trip from their homes to the edge of the sea, a similar or somewhat longer distance, required four to six weeks. The trip across the sea took less than ten hours (Ex. 14:21–27). A walk of 220 kilometers in ten hours requires 22 km/hr (13.75 mi/hr), in this example, over extremely rough terrain. This speed is close to the world record for running—on an ideal, smooth, and level track, for relatively short race distances.
Even if these fleeing pedestrians could have found a straight smooth path (a first-class paved highway) so that the speed requirement would be only 18 km/hr (11.25 mi/hr), they would need to overcome several major problems: (1) this is much too fast for sustained travel on foot, by ordinary adults and children, even on level ground; (2) the transverse coral reefs have vertical relief of 500 or so meters, which must be climbed in two directions (up and down), providing very inefficient travel; (3) the second half of the trip would involve a climb of perhaps 1,200 meters (4,000 feet—to the top of a 330-story building), which means that travel would be significantly slower than normal; and (4) crossing the Red Sea places the traveler in the Arabian Peninsula, not in the Sinai Peninsula. The data given here show that a crossing of the Red Sea, within the ten or so hours specified in Exodus, is not possible, and that even the goal is mistaken. Without any other considerations, the ubiquitous coral reefs eliminate "Red Sea" as a viable rendition.
The long, narrow water body between Egypt, on the west, and the Sinai Peninsula, on the east, is the Gulf of Suez. Perhaps in ancient times this water body was known by the name of the larger sea with which it was connected, in which case "Red Sea" might be appropriate. The Gulf of Suez is only about 25–30 kilometers wide, and up to two hundred meters deep (666 feet). If the terrain were not too rough, ten hours might be enough for the crossing. This appears to be conceptually possible, but probably not practical for a crowd of more than two million people on foot, including small children (Ex. 13:37). Two million people cannot travel down a given road on the same time schedule as twenty or two hundred people. A column ten persons wide, each separated from the persons ahead and behind by one meter respectively (not much room), walking at 5 km/hr, requires forty hours to pass a single fixed point. If the column is one hundred persons wide, the elapsed time is four hours, but this still does not include transit time, and does not permit any rest stops.
None of the discussion in the previous paragraph allows for the problem of crossing the high, narrow, rugged ridge reefs which are present. Therefore, even the Gulf of Suez appears to have been too wide and too difficult for a crossing in a single night. If this were indeed the pertinent water body, then one would have to assume a certain elasticity in the use of names. Nevertheless, translators who believe that "Gulf of Suez" was meant, and who understand the modern designations, should not use "Red Sea."
