Har Karkom: the mountain of God
‘Har Karkom, on Israeli maps, or Jebel Ideid (The mountain of festivi-ties) for the Bedouins, is a small mountain table about four kilometres long and two kilometres wide, situated in the southern Negev on the actual frontier between Israel and Egypt in an area which is closed to the public. The mountain, since 1980, is at the centre of the archaeological atten-tions of the organiser of the exhibition, and has revealed itself to have been an important place of worship in the Bronze Age. Various archaeo-logical expeditions in the last eight years have led to the discovery of more than 600 sites of enormous interest. The exhibition, with the aid of a rich and articulate collection of images, photographs, maps, diagrams and suggestive surroundings, reconstructs the life of the “Sacred Mountain”, dedicating particular attention to the BAC (Bronze Age Complex) period, displays the results of the archaeolo-gical research carried out and proposes hypotheses, problems, and perspectives. ” International interest in these researches is increasing, affirms Profes-sor Anati, and the debate between those who believe Har Harkom to be the biblical Mount Sinai, and those who reject the hypothesis, has taken on global dimensions which concern the chronology and the to-pography of the Exodus”.’