Pi-hahiroth: place where the reeds grow (LXX. and Copt. read "farmstead"),
the name of a place in Egypt where the children of Israel
encamped (Ex. 14:2, 9), how long is uncertain. Some have
identified it with Ajrud, a fortress between Etham and Suez. The
condition of the Isthmus of Suez at the time of the Exodus is
not exactly known, and hence this, with the other places
mentioned as encampments of Israel in Egypt, cannot be
definitely ascertained. The isthmus has been formed by the Nile
deposits. This increase of deposit still goes on, and so rapidly
that within the last fifty years the mouth of the Nile has
advanced northward about four geographical miles. In the maps of
Ptolemy (of the second and third centuries A.D.) the mouths of
the Nile are forty miles further south than at present. (See
EXODUS T0001283.)