At Elim

Exodus 15:27 - Then they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

I wonder why the number of springs and palm trees is mentioned. Who counted the palm trees? Maybe this is an estimate, but still.... I get the impression that, since this is generally a desert-like region, this was considered a lot of water and trees. But remember that this is the whole city of Chicago (size-wise) that is setting up camp here. I wonder how many people actually got near the water or the trees. Were there some who didn't even know they were there until they were told about them?

How much space do 2.5 million people occupy? If they are all standing next to each other taking up 1 square foot (for easy calculation) apiece, that's 2.5 million square feet. Over 275,000 square yards. Very roughly half a square mile. But there could easily have been more people. And that doesn't account for the animals and possessions. And they weren't all standing shoulder to shoulder. This group could have easily covered many square miles of sand.

I wonder how many miles this huge caravan stretched when they moved from camp to camp.