Why This Matters for Christian Apologetics
Claims that Egyptian chariot wheels have been found on the floor of the Red Sea have been circulating since 1978. They appear on YouTube, in Christian films, on Christian television, and across social media. Many Christians find them compelling. But Katon Gilfeather of Creation Ministries International wants to set the record straight — not to undermine belief in the Exodus, but to protect it. If a Christian believes the Bible because of this evidence, what happens when a sceptic demonstrates that the evidence doesn’t hold up? Faith built on faulty foundations is more fragile than faith built on solid ones. The Exodus happened. The Red Sea crossing was a real miracle. But the site and the evidence being promoted are not the right ones.
The Claimed Location: Gulf of Akaba
The traditional scholarly view places the Red Sea crossing somewhere at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez, or possibly in the ancient lakes along the Egyptian border that have since been drained by the Suez Canal. The claims about chariot wheels, however, centre on a specific site in the middle of the Gulf of Akaba — the eastern fork of the Red Sea — where a large beach called Nuweiba opens onto a roughly 10-mile-wide stretch of water leading to the Saudi Arabian coast. Proponents say the Israelites were trapped at Nuweiba, crossed to Saudi Arabia on a sandy ridge beneath the water, and that the Egyptian chariots sank as the sea returned.
The Three Categories of “Evidence”
Category 1: Coral formations. The great majority of photographs and video footage from scuba divers at this site show coral. CMI has a coral expert on staff who has identified a genus of coral that grows naturally in the Red Sea — Acropora — which grows in the form of stalks topped by plate-like discs. This shape can superficially resemble a chariot wheel when viewed underwater. But it is just the natural growth pattern of this coral species. No wooden or leather chariot parts have been found — which is exactly what we would expect of genuine Egyptian chariots, since we know from actual Egyptian chariots in museums (including from Tutankhamun’s tomb) that they were lightweight wood and leather constructions that would not survive thousands of years of saltwater exposure.
Category 2: The alleged gold wheel. The most famous single photograph associated with these claims shows what appears to be a metallic wheel. Ron Wyatt, who first made these dives in 1978, claimed this was an Egyptian chariot wheel covered in gold — possibly from Pharaoh’s own chariot. When this wheel is compared with modern metal pulley wheels, it is identical. The spoke thickness does not match Egyptian chariot wheels (which were thin and lightweight); the hub is flat rather than the elongated tube found on actual Egyptian chariots. It is a modern steel pulley wheel. It is also worth noting that even if an Egyptian chariot wheel were found, it would be shocking for it to remain pristine and uncrusted on the seafloor for 3,500 years.
Category 3: Mislabelled photographs. Some photographs that circulate online showing large wheels on the seafloor are not even from the Nuweiba site. They come from a nineteenth-century shipwreck at the southern end of the Gulf of Suez. They are sometimes used to illustrate what wheels on a seafloor look like, but they have nothing to do with Egyptian chariots.
The Problem with Ron Wyatt
These claims originate almost entirely with Ron Wyatt, a Seventh-day Adventist from Tennessee with no formal training in archaeology, geology, or Egyptology who passed away in 1999. Wyatt claimed to have discovered an extraordinary catalogue of biblical artefacts and sites: the true location of Noah’s Ark (a natural geological formation in Turkey that CMI has investigated), the graves of Noah and his wife, the true location of Sodom and Gomorrah, Goliath’s sword, and the Ark of the Covenant — which he claimed to have found in the Garden Tomb, illegally excavated with his sons, opened, and personally handled the Ten Commandments inside. He also claimed angelic encounters that instructed him not to reveal too much, and that he had met Jesus. He alleged he found the blood of Jesus, had it tested, and discovered that Jesus had 24 chromosomes rather than the standard 46 — 23 from Mary and one Y chromosome from God.
This is not a matter of the genetic fallacy — dismissing ideas by criticising their source. When asked for concrete evidence for any of his claims, Wyatt consistently produced either paper-thin excuses or appeals to unnamed organisations that had supposedly prevented him from releasing the data. CMI and others investigated those organisations and found no such restrictions existed. Ron Wyatt’s claims have been definitively falsified on multiple counts. He is not a trustworthy source for anything.
The Pillars That Weren’t
Wyatt also claimed to have found a smooth red granite pillar lying in the surf at Nuweiba Beach, and an identical pillar on the Saudi Arabian side, the latter bearing an ancient Phoenician inscription containing the names Yahweh, Pharaoh, Moses, and Solomon. His claim was that Solomon, who had ships in the Gulf of Akaba, erected these pillars to commemorate the Red Sea crossing on both sides of the passage. The pillar at Nuweiba exists and has been photographed (the Saudi government later erected it in concrete). But it has no inscription. The alleged Saudi pillar with its inscription has disappeared, with no photographic evidence. The style of the pillar at Nuweiba is not Phoenician — it closely matches standard Roman pillars from a much later period, identifiable to anyone familiar with Roman archaeological sites in Israel and Egypt.
The Depth Problem
The Gulf of Akaba is part of the same tectonic rift as the Dead Sea — the lowest point on earth. The Gulf drops to a mile deep in most of its length. Even at the so-called sandbar or ridge beneath Nuweiba Beach, the depth reaches approximately 800 metres at its deepest crossing point — half a mile down. Supporters often cite a claimed depth of 200–300 metres, but the British Admiralty charts (which Wyatt supporter Jonathan Gray cited) show the correct depth: 800 metres. If the walls of water on either side of the Israelites were 800 metres high, that is taller than the Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world. When that amount of water collapses back over an army of Egyptian chariots, we should not expect any chariot wheel to remain visible on the seafloor 3,500 years later. The Bible says the bodies washed up on the shore — that amount of water would obliterate everything.
The Bible Is Enough
Katon Gilfeather is emphatic: the Red Sea crossing was a real miracle, performed by the real God of Israel. The Exodus is real history. He does not dispute any of that. His concern is that Christians must ensure the evidence they cite for their faith is genuine evidence — because the credibility of the biblical record is too precious to rest on falsified claims, natural coral formations, and the word of a man who claimed to have found everything from the Ark of the Covenant to the blood of Jesus.
The miracle of the Red Sea crossing does not need Ron Wyatt. It stands on the testimony of Moses, confirmed by the prophets, the psalms, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That is sufficient.