And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Came to Marah - following the general route of all travelers southward, along the Wady Werdan, an almost interminable plain of smooth white sand, between the sea and the table-land of the Tih (valley of wandering). Marah is almost universally believed to be what is now 'called Howarah, in Wady Amarah, about thirty miles from the place where the Israelites landed, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea-a distance quite sufficient for their march of three days. The basin of this well is about six or eight feet in diameter, with two feet of water. Burckhardt says that the journey from Ayun Musa to Howarah took his party 15 hours and 15 minutes; but in the case of a whole nation, including old men, women, and children, we may reasonably allow a longer time, and consider that this was the march on which "they went three days in the wilderness," until they came to his spot.
Lepsius ('Letters on the Peninsula of Sinai') traces their route thus: After taking in a full supply of water at Ayun Musa, he says, 'they proceeded without stopping, and halted at Wady el Ahtha, making a day's journey of about 15 miles; because if this was not their resting-place, they must have gone nine miles further, to Wady Sudhr-a distance too great for a single day. From Wady el Ahtha they proceeded on the second day to Wady Werdan-a march of 16 miles, where there is the sweet little stream Ain Abu Suweirah, which must have been at that time dry, because "they found no water."' On the third day they came to Marah, which Lepsius fixes in Wady Ghurundel, where there is one of the chief watering-places of the Arabs, with plenty of bushes and shrubs. But his arguments are not thought good; and Robinson says of Howarah, which is four or five miles nearer, that since the days of Burckhardt it has generally been regarded as the bitter fountain Marah. There is no other perennial spring in the intermediate space. The water still retains its ancient character, and has a bad name among the Arabs, who seldom allow their camels to partake of it. The following analysis of the bitter water from this spring given by Osborne, ('Palestine Past and Present,' Appendix 6:) Its specific gravity at 30 degrees Celsius, is 1,00845. It contains in 1,000 parts:
Sulphate of Lime 1,545 parts Sulphate of Magnesia, 1,000 parts Sulphate of Soda, 0,919 parts Sulphate of Potash, 0,281 parts Chloride of Sodium, 3,940 parts Bituminous matter, traces Silicic Acid, traces
Carbonic Acid, traces TOTAL: 8,345 parts