A common misconception about קריעת ים סוף

Most people picture the sea splitting and Bnei Yisrael going through to the other side. However, both Tosafos (ערכין ט"ו) and the Rambam (אבות ה,ד) state that Bnei Yisrael actually went in a semicircle and ended up on the same side that they started from. This makes the נס even bigger, because the shevet on the outside had to go much further then the innermost shevet and therefore Hashem had to make sure that the innermost מצרים were slowed down so that they would not emerge before the outermost Jews.