Pi-hahiroth: Place where the reeds grow (LXX. and Copt. read "farmstead"), the name
of a place in Egypt where the children of Israel encamped
(Exodus 14:2,9)
how long is uncertain. Some have identified it with Ajrud, a fortress
between Etham and Suez. The condition of the Isthmus of Suez at the
time of the Exodus is not exactly known, and hence this, with the
other places mentioned as encampments of Israel in Egypt, cannot be
definitely ascertained. The isthmus has been formed by the Nile
deposits. This increase of deposit still goes on, and so rapidly that
within the last fifty years the mouth of the Nile has advanced
northward about four geographical miles. In the maps of Ptolemy (of
the second and third centuries A.D.) the mouths of the Nile are forty
miles further south than at present.
