Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 4 -- The Cross
After the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt, the refugees
Came to Elim where there were twelve wells of water, and
threescore and ten palm trees; and then encamped there by
the waters.” -- Exodus 15:27
When the refugees needed more water, God told Moses at
Mt. Horeb (modern Sinai).
"And thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water
out of it, that the people may drink.” -- Exodus 17:6.
The Second Book of Kings
The Spring of Elim at Wadi Tayyib al-Ism
is said to be that water.
Today’s Ain-es-Sultan, the Sultan's Spring
near Jericho, is the spring "healed" by
Elisha’s casting of salt (II Kings 2:21) and the
source of Barada (the Biblical "Abana").
Syrians still escape modern Damascus to
enjoy the apricot, apple and walnut trees.
According to the he International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development,
The principal emergence of the spring,
which has been enclosed in a structure
since Roman times, resembles an
underground river several meters across
which flows up and out of the limestone
formation of the mountain. The total flow
has averaged 8.63 cubic meters per
second.
Jordan Valley, from The Bible Educator
(1870) with overlay of modern Ain-es-Sultan
The Book of Psalms
Hebrew geography was Babylonian, the sea encircling the earth and hidden channels to “the
great deep” from which all waters derive (Psalms 136:6). Hebrew/Babylonian floods came from
below, not from above. The vassal-treaties of Esarhaddon declare, "May a flood, an irresistible
deluge, rise from the bowels of the earth and devastate you."
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