Dale Pollard
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It’s not just a rock.
It’s a rock surrounded by empty silence and scorched earth. It appears, not as a mere geological feature, but a thunderstruck altar where the desert drank. A place where a miracle met stone.
Rising stark and solemn from the barren Saudi wilderness, the Split Rock of Horeb stands like a silent sentinel of ancient power. Towering nearly 60 feet high, the colossal granite monolith looms over the desolate plain, its weathered and tan flanks are etched by wind and time. But what sets it apart, what seizes the imagination—is the cleft. A prodigious vertical split that is so unnaturally straight it’s as though it were torn by an invisible hand.
The two halves, still joined at the base, are separated by a gap so wide a man could walk between them. Where is the magic sword from heaven that must have struck it so cleanly?
At its base, the rock bears smooth channels and grooves—as if torrents of water once burst forth, carving trails into the stone that in wild obedience submit itself to divine command. Light filters through the divide, casting shadows that whisper about that day even to this day.
Yes, the rock still stands.
Despite centuries of exposure to harsh desert winds, sand, and temperature extremes, the massive split rock remains tall and intact. It has an imposing presence, seemingly sliced vertically in a way that defies typical erosion patterns. The site receives occasional attention, but not too much and rarely up close.
It’s in a remote, restricted area which is often under military control, and access has historically been limited or even outright prohibited by Saudi powers.
NO TRESPASSING?
Many of the widely circulated photos and videos of the rock come from unauthorized expeditions, but here’s a couple stand outs (Ron Wyatt won’t get any attention here).
Jim and Penny Caldwell
(1992)
They were just the average American oil workers living in Saudi Arabia, but with a neat twist.
On numerous occasions they took considerable personal risk by sneaking into restricted areas to document the rock and other sites, including:
- The Split Rock
- The blackened peak of Sinai
- Altar-like structures and petroglyphs of bulls (linked to the golden calf story)
Oh, and they had to smuggle all pictures and footage out of the country.
Bob Cornuke
(Late 1990s-Early 2000s)
He was just your average former police investigator, but with a neat twist!
He collaborated with the Caldwells and visited the site to gather photographic and testimonial evidence. His trips were perfectly reasonable, just slightly (ok, entirely) unauthorized and clandestine.
Other explorers have faced interrogation, arrest, or deportation by Saudi authorities and the government has since built a fence around Split Rock. Access is now heavily restricted or off-limits to the public.
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Bonus Neat
Local Bedouins have called it the “Rock of Moses” for generations and their oral traditions speak of how water once flowed from it. Some Bedouins avoid the site entirely.
Bread Facts
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
Exodus 17:6-7
(see also, Numbers 20:1–13)
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