Mount Sinai & St. Catherine's Monastery
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2010
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Trip End
Jan 28, 2010
Mt Sinai (Jabal Musa), Egypt
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sharm Excursions and Mount Sinai :
We had booked our trip to see the sunrise at Mount Sinai and to visit the St. Catherine's Monastery with a company called Sharm Excursions before coming to Egypt. We were initially rather apprehensive in booking with them after reading some negative reviews about them on TripAdvisor.
However, their price was really cheap and we decided to go ahead with the booking. Our e-mail to the company was promptly replied and the instruction about payment and itinerary of our trip was succinctly explained.
We paid our initial deposit through PayPal and a guy from the company arrived at our hotel promptly at the appointed time in the late afternoon to collect the balance deposit in cash and to give us further information about the pick-up time and itinerary.
We were picked up from our hotel at about 11.00 pm and realised that there were 11 of us for the trip, with guests from other hotels, whom we picked up along the way. The journey went smoothly and we were at the foot of Mount Sinai about 3 hours later with only one toilet stop along the way.
Mount Sinai (Jabal Musa) :
It is a rule that all climbs on Mount Sinai must be guided by a Bedouin guide, who knows the route better than anyone else. We were informed of this very clearly since the beginning of the booking. The guide who came to fetch us from our hotel did not follow us up the climb and that was also informed to us very clearly. Our Bedouin guide, a young man named Mahmoud was highly entertaining, caring, attentive and responsible. He is also multi-lingual and was efficiently able to explain the route and give directions to all the guests in a few different languages! We were highly impressed with his ability. Through out the climb, he took care of some the guests who were less fit very well and often asked the rest of us how we were doing.
The climb itself was fairly easy for us but not everyone share the same view. There were many coffee/tea huts along the route and the guide will often stop at each for a few minutes for the climbers to regain their strength. The only thing which made the whole thing unbearable for us was the wind! It was so, so cold, despite us being really prepared with several layers of jumpers and windbreaker! In the end, we had to rent a blanket from one of the coffee/tea stops for 20EGP for me to wrap around myself while waiting for the sun to rise at the summit. The temperature when we were there was almost -5 celcius. My fingers were so frozen I could not even click on the button of my camera!!
We were there during winter time and we thought there would not be many tourists going up the mountain. We were so wrong! There were so many people and it was quite disappointing from a photographer’s point of view because all my photos have to be post-processed to crop out the heads of all the spectators.
That aside, we must say that it was quite an exhilarating experience to see the sapphire blue sky being lighted up bit-by-bit by the bright yellow ray from the sun. We stayed to watch the changing landscape for awhile and then began our journey down the mountain. By now, the weather has got a little warmer and we were basically scrambling down the steps in full energy!
St. Catherine’s Monastery :
The St. Catherine’s Monastery sits at the foot of Mount Sinai, guarded by 4 high walls around its sides. It is said that the fortress monastery was ordered to be built by the Roman Emperor Justinian in 537AD to protect Sinai against invasion. The church which was built within the fortress was later renamed after St. Catherine (a 4th century Alexandrian who was martyred) after her body was said to have been found atop Sinai’s highest peak (Mount St. Catherine), allegedly looking the same as she was when she died 500 years before the discovery. This miracle created the fame of the monastery, so much so that by the 14th century, 400 monks were said to have lived there. The skulls of most of these monks are housed in one of the buildings in the fortress today.
We waited for our guide at the designated place outside the Monastery and when all the people in the group have been accounted for, we joined the long queue of visitors waiting to get in. We were informed by our guide that although Russia was the chief benefactor of the monastery, it remains the property of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The monastery’s great treasures are said to be its 6th century mosaics and some precious, rare ancient illuminated manuscripts which are kept under lock. However, what we really wanted to see most was the Burning Bush, believed to be the place where God has spoken to Moses while the latter was grazing his flocks. Moses came upon a burning bush that was, miraculously, unconsumed by its own flames on the side of Mount Horeb. The spot where the Burning Bush was is situated at the end of a building in a small beautiful alcove, marked now by a small silver plate. On top of it is The Chapel of the Burning Bush
Following the Burning Bush, we also stopped at a gruesome ossuary which houses the skulls of former monks of the monastery. We were informed by our guide that due to the scantiness of earth around the monastery, it does not permit permanent graves. Thus, the monks who were buried in the cemetery were later exhumed and their bones placed in the ossuary. After taking a few pictures of the place, we tumbled out from it feeling a little strange and reflective.
Back to Na’ama Bay :
After the end of our tour of the St Catherine’s Monastery, we were driven to a restaurant for a light lunch, which was also included in the price of our trip with Sharm Excursions. Lunch was served buffet style and we soon realised that we were not the only tour group who were having our meal there. The place became very crowded but for the price which we have paid, we are not complaining.
This entire excursion which we have taken with Sharm Excursions was well worth our money. It went really smoothly and we cannot understand why people have so much complaint about them, which is not fair.
We were driven back to Na’ama Bay after our lunch, where we checked out and went to the airport for our onward flight to Cairo by Egypt Air.
Everything went really well so far and we are very happy with the smooth-running of our Middle East journey!
