Hala-'l Badr

Hala-'l Badr (or Hala-'l Bedr, in Arabic: حلا البدر) is a volcano in north western Saudi Arabia situated at 27.25° N, 37.235° E.

A number of scholars, including Charles Beke^[1], Sigmund Freud^[2], and Immanuel Velikovsky, have proposed that the biblical description of devouring fire on Mount Sinai refers to an erupting volcano; this possibility would exclude all the peaks on the Sinai Peninsula and Mount Seir, but would match a number of locations in north western Saudi Arabia, of which Hala-'l Badr is the most prominent.

The equation of Sinai with Hala-'l Badr has been advocated by various scholars and authors, including

• Alois Musil in the early 20th century
• Jean Koenig in 1971^[3]
• Colin Humphreys in 2003^[4]

Humphreys reports that a volcano in the region erupted in AD 640, but it is not known exactly which volcano this was. Hala-'l Badr has a volcanic explosivity index of at least 2, meaning that it is an explosive volcano capable of producing a plume three miles high.

The area of Madyan in which Hala-'l Badr lies is reputed to have been the site of ancient disasters caused by earthquakes and possibly a volcano (see Thamud and Madyan).

See also

• Edomites

Citations and notes

1. ^ Charles Beke, Mount Sinai, a Volcano (1873)
2. ^ Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (1939)
3. ^ Jean Koenig, Le site de Al-Jaw dans l'ancien pays de Madian
4. ^ Colin Humphreys, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories (2003)

External links

• Google Maps satellite view
• Graphs showing volcanic eruptions of the time, based on ice cores
• Article in Dutch

Coordinates: 27°15′N 37°12′E / 27.25°N 37.2°E / 27.25; 37.2