Jebel al-Madhbah is a mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 at Petra

Petra

Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...

, in present-day Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, which a number of scholars have proposed as the Biblical Mount Sinai

Biblical Mount Sinai

The Biblical Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Book of Exodus states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God...

, beginning with Ditlef Nielsen in 1927. The top 8 metres of the original peak was carved away to form the obelisks, destroying evidence of whatever earlier structures had been located there, except for hints that shiny blue slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 once covered the summit.; the biblical description of Sinai mentions sapphire paving, which at that time referred to shiny blue paving, rather than paving made from what is now called sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...

.

The name Jebel al-Madbah means mountain of the altar, and is well deserved since its summit is covered in a number of different altars, including some that are circular, and others that are square, carved into the rock. One possible reason for Madbah being considered sacred is the fact that there have been many reports and sightings of plasma

Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...

 phenomena at al-Madhbah over the centuries, possibly equating with the dramatic biblical descriptions of devouring fire on the summit of Sinai. The sacred nature of the mountain is not limited to the summit; the Treasury

Al Khazneh

Al Khazneh is one of the most elaborate buildings in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, including the Monastery , this structure was also carved out of a sandstone rock face...

 building, which is thought to have a ritual purpose, is carved into the mountain's base, facing the Siq

Siq

al-Siq is the main entrance to the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan. The dim, narrow gorge winds its way approximately one mile and ends at Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh .The Siq is a natural geological fault produced by tectonic forces and worn smooth by water erosion...

; the loud trumpeting sound caused by wind funnelling down the siq is referred to by local Bedouins as the trumpet of God, matching the biblical description of a loud trumpet at Sinai.

The mountain is over a thousand metres high, but a rock staircase winds its way from the top down to the valley below; the valley in which Petra resides is known as the Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa, , is the name of a town located in the Ma'an Governorate in southern Jordan east of Petra at latitude 30.317N and longitude 35.483E....

, meaning valley of Moses. At the entrance to the Siq is the Ain Musa, meaning spring of Moses; the 13th century Arab chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

r Numairi stated was Ain Musa was Meribah

Meribah

Meribah is one of the locations which the Torah identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus, although the continuous list of visited stations in the Book of Numbers doesn't mention it...

, the location where Moses had brought water from the ground, by striking it with his rod.