Pi-hahiroth

Meaning: place where the reeds grow (Septuagint and Coptic Versions read “farmstead”)

This is the name of a place in Egypt where the children of Israel encamped (Exodus 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 a period of 50 years the mouth of the Nile advanced northward about 4 geographical miles.

In the maps of Ptolemy (of the second and third centuries A.D.) the mouths of the Nile are 40 miles further south. (See Exodus.)