Egypt
מִצְרַיִם
Where is Egypt? Northern Sinai, toward the Nile, in Egypt. I mark it certain.
Abraham went down to Egypt in a famine. Two generations later Jacob and his sons did the same. Their descendants walked out of it toward the land on this map.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Northern Sinai, toward the Nile, in Egypt
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Mitzrayim
- Location
- 30.7826° N, 33.9056° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Mitzrayim is Egypt throughout the Bible, with its Pharaohs, its Nile and its cities in the Delta. There is nothing to debate about where it is. What needs explaining is the label. The Nile heartland lies well off this map to the west. Here the name marks the direction and the borderland.
The Torah sets the southwestern border of the Land at Nahal Mitzrayim, the Brook of Egypt. Most identify it with Wadi el-Arish in northern Sinai. A nahal is a stream valley. Some flow all year, but a nahal is never a great river like the Nile. G-d's covenant with Abraham speaks more broadly, of "the river of Egypt."
Visiting today
Northern Sinai is closed to most travelers. The Nile Valley and the Delta can be visited in Egypt.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Egypt on the interactive map →
The whole Land on your wall
A hand-drawn map of Biblical Israel, with more than 160 places from Dan to Kadesh Barnea, printed on archival matte paper.
Free with every print: a companion ebook on every place on the map, a $19.99 value.
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- The Brook of Egypt 16 km
- Kadesh Barnea 60 km
- The Brook Besor 76 km
- The Wilderness of Zin 81 km
- Beer Lahai Roi 83 km
- The Valley of Gerar 86 km