This map describes the journey the Israelites took from Egypt to Israel, including the forty stops they made along the way. It also depicts a number of the events that occurred during the journey. For example, Pharaoh and his chariot can be seen drowning in the Red Sea, aptly coloured red, while the figure of a horned Moses holding out a staff over the Sea appears on the other side.
The map's creator, Heinrich Bunting, lived in Germany during the Renaissance period in the sixteenth century and presented the biblical story from the more accurate scientific perspective of the time.
Both the illustrations on the map and its proportions can teach us a lot about the history of ancient cartography.
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Connection to Parashat Matot
In Parashat Matot, the Torah tells of the war that Moses instructed the Jewish People to wage against the nation of Midian. This was one of the last episodes before the Jewish People captured the Land of Israel. Their next step was to enter the Holy Land. In the map shown here the green path shows the Jewish People’s route from Egypt to the Land of Israel, approaching from the east. The green path ends at the point of their entrance to Israel as described in this Parasha.
