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Let My People Go! – The History and Historicity of the Biblical Account of the Exodus

Khalid Elhassan May 31, 2025 17 min

15. What Archaeological Evidence Has Been Found?

Remains of ancient Jericho. Ancient Origins

Archaeologists have not found evidence to support the Exodus account. There is no support for a large-scale Hebrew population in Egypt, nor of a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands. Archaeologists have not found campsites or occupation layers in Sinai from this period. A forty-year encampment of a large population, as described in the Bible, would have left remains, but none have been discovered.

Nor have archaeologists found evidence of a swift and destructive conquest of Canaan as described in the Bible. For example, the Bible recounts the dramatic conquest of Jericho, but archaeology shows that Jericho was sparsely populated or abandoned at the time. Also, Egypt kept detailed records, yet no document mentions Hebrew slaves or a mass exodus. To be fair, Egyptians rarely documented defeats, but the silence is significant. As a result, many scholars are skeptical about the literal truth of the Exodus story.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.