The Sinai Island

Hypothesizing the Gulfs of Aquaba and Suez reaching the Mediterranean. The Jordan valley would be flooded by seawater and the Sinai is cut off along the line of OTL Suez Canal and from Aquaba through the Negev to Gaza.

Butterflies obviously enormous - he who owns the Sinai controls access to Egypt one way and the Fertile Crescent the other way. Egypt, Persia, Alexander, the Ptolemaic Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, later on France, Britain...

...Enormous butterflies, starting with Genesis and the Hyksos...

Have fun.
 
Hypothesizing the Gulfs of Aquaba and Suez reaching the Mediterranean. The Jordan valley would be flooded by seawater and the Sinai is cut off along the line of OTL Suez Canal and from Aquaba through the Negev to Gaza.

Butterflies obviously enormous - he who owns the Sinai controls access to Egypt one way and the Fertile Crescent the other way. Egypt, Persia, Alexander, the Ptolemaic Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, later on France, Britain...

...Enormous butterflies, starting with Genesis and the Hyksos...

Have fun.
Presumably this happens after the last Ice Age right? So we still have people because initial formation 25m ybp means no humans.
 
Actually, it's the otherway around. Whoever controls the Sinai for a long time controls a fairly unattractive, sandy island. If you can cross the ATL Straits of Aqaba and Suez, you can also navigate around Sinai Island.

Of course, the butterflies start very early with this one. Even without accounting for the climatic change along the East African coast, how will erectus (or sapiens sapiens) get out of Africa?

Sinai Island doesn't really become strategically interesting until you have effective navies. Depending on the width of the Straits, that'll be either in the Bronze Age or sometime in the pre-Classical Iron Age. If there is such a thing, of course. And their real value will not be controlling traffic between Egypt and Syria. That can always stand out to sea (no ancient navy controlled 'the high seas' in any meaningful manner). It would be their ability to control passage through the Straits, the trade between the Mediterranean and the Indian ocean (which, at this juncture, is likely to develop much earlier and much more effectively).

Imagine the timber of Thrace and Cilicia hewn into keels to ride the waves to Taprobane under the banner of the King of Both Lands.
 
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Keep going, bach!

Homo Erectus would have to develop dugouts or the rifts would have to develop after there had been some crossings by erectus families. Ever read 'Sarum'? The hunter-gatherers move west along a chalk ridge and find it gone a few years later when they try to return to Europe.

The Sinai being surrounded by water may give it a better climate and make the Wadi el Arish into at least a seasonal river. Question is, would the Nubian Sandstone hold any water? I'm going to suggest the rift faulting didn't allow it to move eastwards from Egypt to the Sinai. Oh, and there will be a current from the Red Sea into the Med, which should help crossings...
 
Maybe the Homo Erectus cross the straits when the Sea Level is lower.

Anyway, IIRC, the Early humans seemed to have crossed through the end of the Red Sea, as the Desert Way was too difficult.
 
Sinia Island

Rifts Systems are in three parts, 2 active - 1 dead. The East Africa Rift System consists of Red Sea, Great Rift Valley, and Jordon Valley Rift. OTL the Jordan Rift is the inactive one.
However this doesn't mean Dead, there are still periodic small quakes [2~3], With occasion larger ones [6~7]. And the Arms change activity.
The Jordan Rift goes from the Gulf Aqaba, north to the Med, just south of Beirut.

So lets assume a increase in Jordon Rift about 80~90,000 years BP. as the Jordon becomes the active Arm.
The rift opens over the next 70~80,000 and the bottom drops 150~200 feet from the Gulf Aqaba to about OTL location of Beirut.
However this doesn't stop travel/migration, as the Sea level is about 300 feet lower than now due to the Ice Age.

Far to the East about 15,000 years BP the Nile [larger amount than OTL] takes a dogleg from Cairo east along the Qassian Depression reaching the Sinai just north of the Great Bitter Lake.
Over the next couple thousands years, this increases the size of Bitter Lake & scours out a channel between the Lake and the Gulf of Suez.
The enlarged Lake creeps north along the low [OTL 10~20 feet above now sea level.] depressions between the Lake and the Med Coast. Scouring a slight Channel.

About 12,000 BP the Ice Age ends, The Nile/Suez Arm drys up and return North toward the Med. and the Sea Level begins to Rise.
The rising Sea fills in the Gulf Aqaba and moves north along the new rift , to the North the Med begins moving south from Beirut, till they meet at the Sea Galilee.
To the East the Rising Sea moves up the Bitter Lake Channel into the Bitter Lake, and then Over the Slight Channel to the Med.

By 8000 BP the sea level has stabilized with the Sinai as a large semi desert Island separating Africa and Asia.

about 6000 BP
Adam, a illegal Blacksmith, with his wife Eve and sons Abel & Cain, lead their friends and Family West,
They are fleeing the local authorities in Mesopotamia, that are trying to keep Iron Working a Military secret.
Arriving at the Jordon Straits, they build rafts to transport their herds [Horse, Cattle, Sheep, Goat] across arriving on the North end of Sinai Island.
In time they will form two Tribal Nations, that will be the power houses on the Island.

Sinia Island.png
 
Presumably this happens after the last Ice Age right? So we still have people because initial formation 25m ybp means no humans.

I don't believe that there's a sufficiently strong grasp of either the theory or the actual history of the evolution of hominids to justify that statement.

Just saying.
 
Duquense, it's Sinai Island...

... Otherwise, I'm impressed.

I'd postulated a series of subrifts at the north of the Red Sea - the Jordan Rift splits to form the Negev Rift which reaches the Med, the main Jordan Rift becoming inactive. The Suez Rift extends and is long/deep enough to reach the Med, maybe being kept open by inflows from the Red Sea and the Nile. So, Palestine/Israel is a peninsula and the Sinai is an island.


My ideas had been more geological than societal. However, I can see some effects :-
  • A more maritime society in this area.
  • Probably more rainfall.
  • Major invasions are halted by the Suez and Negev Straits.
  • Capernaum, Jericho and Masada are seaports. Maybe Bethlehem and Nazareth are as well?
  • Gaza is a strategic fort site for the Egyptians (assuming that the Pharaohs dominate the Sinai at an early stage).
  • The Hyksos (and, later, the Arabs) would only be able to dominate Egypt if they can adapt to maritime warfare.
  • Crete, Philistia and Egypt, are likely to have access to Punt (Yemen/Sheba), India and Ceylon.
  • Without boats, goodbye the Exodus and Moses!
  • Joseph becomes a carpenter who builds fishing boats. Could he take a boat with Mary and Jesus ('I saw three ships come sailing in...')
  • Whilst Alexander could still conquer the Sinai, I wonder if the Babylonian Exile would ever occur?
I would foresee that Philistia dominates Palestine and that the proto-Israel is in the Sinai. David and Solomon have to be maritime Kings to dominate Palestine and the Transjordan area. Petra would be a key seaport on the peninsula, if it exists.

Do we continue?
 
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i would think that Israel would conquer all of the Sinai Island. This would eliminate the Muslim world that was started there. With GOD'S blessing Israel would become a flourishing island nation. Plants would adapt to the salty water and the coast's will be marshy mangrove swamps. Oh and people who were talking about Homo Erectus. They didn't exist. GOD created man in the Garde of Eden, somewhere in Mesopotamia. And Moses and the Exodus didnt use boats. They crossed the Red Sea on foot when GOD split the waters and crushed Pharoh's army.
 
i would think that Israel would conquer all of the Sinai Island. This would eliminate the Muslim world that was started there. With GOD'S blessing Israel would become a flourishing island nation. Plants would adapt to the salty water and the coast's will be marshy mangrove swamps. Oh and people who were talking about Homo Erectus. They didn't exist. GOD created man in the Garde of Eden, somewhere in Mesopotamia. And Moses and the Exodus didnt use boats. They crossed the Red Sea on foot when GOD split the waters and crushed Pharoh's army.

Are you being serious here? If you are, you should place a :rolleyes: because it is sometimes hard to tell sarcasm.

If you want to acknowledge the God of Abraham, all you have to do is capitalise the G to differentiate it from god(s) of other mythologies.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that Homo Erectus did in fact exist, as the fossil record ably demonstrates.
 
Are you being serious here? If you are, you should place a :rolleyes: because it is sometimes hard to tell sarcasm.

If you want to acknowledge the God of Abraham, all you have to do is capitalise the G to differentiate it from god(s) of other mythologies.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that Homo Erectus did in fact exist, as the fossil record ably demonstrates.

I'd say, judging by the member's location and number of posts, he is sincere and not trolling.

The benefits of a religious education.
 
Don't stereotype. I had a religious education too and was exposed to standard scientific accounts of prehistory and the significant evidence on which they are based.

I'd say, judging by the member's location and number of posts, he is sincere and not trolling.

The benefits of a religious education.
 
... Otherwise, I'm impressed.

I'd postulated a series of subrifts at the north of the Red Sea - the Jordan Rift splits to form the Negev Rift which reaches the Med, the main Jordan Rift becoming inactive. The Suez Rift extends and is long/deep enough to reach the Med, maybe being kept open by inflows from the Red Sea and the Nile. So, Palestine/Israel is a peninsula and the Sinai is an island.


My ideas had been more geological than societal. However, I can see some effects :-
  • A more maritime society in this area.
  • Probably more rainfall.
  • Major invasions are halted by the Suez and Negev Straits.
  • Capernaum, Jericho and Masada are seaports. Maybe Bethlehem and Nazareth are as well?
  • Gaza is a strategic fort site for the Egyptians (assuming that the Pharaohs dominate the Sinai at an early stage).
  • The Hyksos (and, later, the Arabs) would only be able to dominate Egypt if they can adapt to maritime warfare.
  • Crete, Philistia and Egypt, are likely to have access to Punt (Yemen/Sheba), India and Ceylon.
  • Without boats, goodbye the Exodus and Moses!
  • Joseph becomes a carpenter who builds fishing boats. Could he take a boat with Mary and Jesus ('I saw three ships come sailing in...')
  • Whilst Alexander could still conquer the Sinai, I wonder if the Babylonian Exile would ever occur?
I would foresee that Philistia dominates Palestine and that the proto-Israel is in the Sinai. David and Solomon have to be maritime Kings to dominate Palestine and the Transjordan area. Petra would be a key seaport on the peninsula, if it exists.

Do we continue?

I doubt that there would be Hyksos, Philistines, Israel, etc. with a POD so early (Assuming this happened a long time ago, not suddenly in the middle of the Old Kingdom).
Civilizations would develop, but we can't say how close they would be to those of OTL.
But I'd love to see what happens with this!
 

Cook

Banned
i would think that Israel would conquer all of the Sinai Island. This would eliminate the Muslim world that was started there. With GOD'S blessing Israel would become a flourishing island nation. Plants would adapt to the salty water and the coast's will be marshy mangrove swamps. Oh and people who were talking about Homo Erectus. They didn't exist. GOD created man in the Garde of Eden, somewhere in Mesopotamia. And Moses and the Exodus didnt use boats. They crossed the Red Sea on foot when GOD split the waters and crushed Pharoh's army.



Silly, silly man, Eden is in Queensland; God’s own country.


The events surrounding Noah and the Ark obviously took place somewhere near either Emerald or Rockhampton, as evidenced by the re-run taking place at the moment.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/more-rain-to-hamper-recovery/story-e6frg6nf-1225983245551

And God played for Geelong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ablett,_Sr.
:p
 
i would think that Israel would conquer all of the Sinai Island. This would eliminate the Muslim world that was started there. With GOD'S blessing Israel would become a flourishing island nation. Plants would adapt to the salty water and the coast's will be marshy mangrove swamps. Oh and people who were talking about Homo Erectus. They didn't exist. GOD created man in the Garde of Eden, somewhere in Mesopotamia. And Moses and the Exodus didnt use boats. They crossed the Red Sea on foot when GOD split the waters and crushed Pharoh's army.

Remember being kicked a couple weeks ago for posting dumb trollish comments in a bunch of ASB threads?

Turns out that doing the same thing in pre-1900 is worth a kick too.
 
Good...Heavens...<looks blankly at posts>

... I didn't intend a Divinity and Creationist discussion...

Seriously, I was thinking of cultures established as being present in the Near East by archaeology, when I made my last post. Neither was I going for a religious aspect.

However, the effects on religious/imperial expansionism are serious -
  • Islam may head north and east (clashing with Byzantium and the Persian Empire) instead of west. However, if the Red Sea becames a major east-west trade corridor, the ports on its (OTL Saudi) coast may become Arabic maritime powers.
  • Egypt would have to be maritime. That would suit the post-Alexander Ptolemies and others.
  • Sinai could be circumvented by landings in Ethiopia and Nubia. Islam could enter Africa by crossing from Aden. Christian Ethiopia might not exist.
  • Rome and Byzantium would hold onto the Suez and Negev Straits like grim death. Would Rome still be the best place for the Pope, or do we get a more eastern church?
Butterflies, butterflies...

 
I think one major fact ignored so far is that Egypt and that Sinai island have only few sources of wood. IOTL, the Lebanon was a main goal of Egyptian expansion exactly for this - wood for building and wood for boats.

Given this, I doubt that either Egypt or Sinai-island become maritime powers. After all, both could probably require Lebanese wood for ships to conquer Lebanon in the first place...
 
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