A 2,285-metre granite peak climbed overnight by pilgrims and walkers for a sunrise over the Sinai range.
Mount Sinai rises directly behind Saint Catherine's Monastery. It is traditionally identified as the mountain where Moses received the commandments, and it has been climbed by pilgrims for well over a thousand years.
Most people climb it at night to be on the summit for sunrise.
The sunrise is the point, and it delivers. From the summit the sun comes up over a landscape of bare granite ridges with no vegetation and no settlement in any direction — a completely different Egypt from the river and the pyramids.
The climb itself is achievable by most reasonably fit people. It is long rather than technical: about three hours up on the camel path, with a final flight of around 750 rough stone steps that is the hard part.
There is also the atmosphere of the walk. You go up in the dark in a slow line of head torches, with Bedouin guides, tea stops in stone shelters along the way, and camels available on the lower section for anyone who wants one.
The identification of this peak with the biblical Mount Sinai dates to the early Christian period and is the reason the monastery is where it is. Other candidate mountains have been proposed; this is the one with fifteen hundred years of pilgrimage attached.
The mountain's Arabic name is Jebel Musa — the Mountain of Moses. By the fourth century monks and hermits had settled the valleys around it, and the monastery at its foot fixed the tradition in stone. Whatever position one takes on the geography, the unbroken centuries of pilgrimage are themselves the historical fact.
It is not actually the highest peak in the range — neighbouring Mount Catherine is Egypt's highest at around 2,600 metres — but this is the one with the tradition, the routes and the sunrise congregation.
The Steps of Repentance — the steeper of the two routes, said to number around 3,750 — were reportedly cut by a single monk as an act of penance.
The mountain has been a destination for Jewish, Christian and Muslim pilgrims, and a small chapel and a mosque stand at the summit.
Year round. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable; winter summits are very cold; summer means climbing in the cool of the night anyway.
Opening hours: Climbed overnight with a local guide, which is required. There is no gate.
Opening hours and ticket prices may change. Please confirm the latest details before visiting.
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