Simcha Jacobovici, Santorini volcano and the biblical Exodus from Egypt April 18, 2006 A provocative $4-million documentary by Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici claims to have found archeological evidence connecting the story of the biblical Exodus from Egypt, 3,500 years ago with the minoan era eruption of the volcano of Santorini. Dating the Exodus to roughly 1,500 BC, the two-hour film presented and executive-produced by Hollywood director James Cameron and airing Easter Sunday on Discovery Canada — suggests that the great Santorini volcano caused the Ten Plagues that the Bible says were visited upon the Egyptians and which finally persuaded the pharaoh of the day. The film contends that the tsunami unleashed by the Santorini upheaval can also account for why the Israelites were able to cross the parting sea ahead of the pharaoh's army and why the Egyptians were subsequently engulfed. But Mr. Jacobovici says the sea Moses crossed was not the Red Sea, as is traditionally thought, but a smaller lake, known in Egypt as the Reed Sea. Its Egyptian name, translated into Hebrew, means the place where God swallowed up. Author : Travel to Santorini