Prize Find: 30,000-Year-Old Sanctuary Found at Har Karkom

Mt. Sinai was a sacred site long before Moses came to it, if the theories of archaeologist Emmanuel Anati are correct. Anati, who has been discovering and excavating archaeological sites and recording rock art in the Har Karkom area since 1980, believes that this mountain in Israel’s southern Negev desert is the location of Biblical Mt. Sinai.^a

In 1992, the 19th expedition to Har Karkom made what may be the most extraordinary discovery yet at this remarkable site. On the eastern ridge of the Har Karkom plateau, they found a group of artifacts that Anati interprets as the remains of a religious sanctuary dating to the initial phase of the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 years ago). The finds lay in the open in an area of about 30 to 40 yards by 15 to 20 yards, at the entrance to a trail leading down to the desert floor.