Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery excursion It was among the most memorable points of my Egypt trip. Mount SinaiIt is known as the place where Prophet Moses received the 10 commandments and therefore is considered holy in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It is connected to the chapel on the summit of Mount Sinai via the "Steps of Penitence" consisting of 3700 steps. St. Catherine's Monastery (St. Catherine's Monastry) It is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. The monastery has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2002. In this article, you will find information about Mount Sinai, the summit hike and St. Catherine's Monastery, how to get there, tour fees, hiking routes, enjoy reading!
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Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery Video
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About Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai is considered sacred by the monotheistic religions, as it is considered the place where the 10 commandments were given to the Prophet Moses. Although there are many theories that Mount Sinai, believed to be the place where the Prophet Moses received the 10 commandments, was different from today's Mount Sinai, the currently accepted holy place is Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula.
Mount Sinai, at an altitude of 2285 meters, is the second highest peak in the Sinai Peninsula after Mount Catherine. The two chapels at the summit attract the attention of history and nature lovers as well as the clergy who come to be pilgrims.
To watch the sunrise and/or sunset at Mount Sinai Dahab, Sharm El Sheikh You can buy daily tours from nearby touristic cities and walk to the top of the mountain with these tours.
Mount Sinai was attracting a lot of attention, both as a pilgrimage site and as a tourist attraction, until 2017, but visits have dwindled in 2017 after a terrorist attack by ISIS in which a police officer was killed. New people are starting to visit Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery again.
What is a chapel?
You can think of the chapel as the name given to the smaller church, like the mosque in Islam. It is not as big as the church, but you can do your worship in the church here as well.
About St. Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery is referred to as the Holy God Monastery on Mount Sinai. The monastery, named after the settlement where it is located, is of great importance especially in terms of Christian history.
The monastery, which serves under the Sinai Church, which is affiliated to the Eastern Orthodox Church, has an important place for Christians due to the unique manuscripts in the library. Built around 550 AD, the monastery is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world and The oldest still active Christian monastery.
The monastery opens at 09:00 in the morning and is open until 23:30 at night. The church in the monastery and the icons on the church walls are also considered very valuable because of their uniqueness. It is strictly forbidden to take photos and videos inside the church.
There is also a museum inside the monastery that can be seen outside the church. Before entering the church building, Hz. You can also see the “burning bush” where Moses received the first message.
Areas other than these areas are not open to visitors due to the fact that they are still an active monastery.
How to Get to Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai is located on the Sinai Peninsula, 2 hours from Dahab and 2,5 hours from Sharm El Sheikh.
In order to climb Mount Sinai, it is necessary to come to the city of St.Catherina first. There used to be buses from Dahab and Sharm El Sheikh, but after the terrorist attack in 2017, the buses were removed. In my research, I could not find any information that the bus was continuing.
The easiest way to get to Mount Sinai is to take a day trip from Dahab and/or Sharm. There are tours where you can be at the summit of Mount Sinai at sunrise or sunset.
Dahab attractions and Dahab travel guide Check out my post too.
Mount Sinai Sunrise Tour
The last stop of my 2019-week Egypt trip in 3, Dahab was the most suitable place to hike Mount Sinai. I did my Mount Sinai trek with a 15 Usd daily tour from the agency called King Safari in Dahab. Mount Sinai and St. It is sold as Catherine Tour in all agencies and both the route, departure time and return time are more or less the same.
How much is the Mount Sinai Sunrise Tour?
The tour I took was 2019 Usd in 15, the same tour was 25 Usd in the hostel where I stayed, and we went with the same vehicle, we did exactly the same route. I mean, it's better to visit a few agencies and bargain for the cheapest option.
The tour includes transportation and entrance fee, no meals. So I took some food and water with me. But there are so many kiosks on the mountain, you won't go hungry or thirsty. You just get it more expensive.
Mount Sinai Sunrise Tour Route
A tiny minibus picked me up from where I was staying at 22:00 in the evening. As in all of Egypt, there are many security checkpoints on the road between Dahab and Mount Sinai. Our journey takes a long time as we are stopped frequently, when normally we could have been much faster.
At the end of the approximately 2,5-hour journey, from Dahab to St. We've reached Catherine. All departing tours arrive at the checkpoint at the entrance at almost the same time.
At the checkpoint, the minibus driver asks us to drop us off and be in the parking lot at 09:45 in the morning at the latest. On the way back, all tour vehicles made a convoy and left at once. If we missed the convoy at 10:00, we would have to wait for the convoy at 12:00. There was a similar convoy application on the way to Abu Simbel Temple, as I was training from there, it seemed normal to me.
Located in Aswan Abu Simbel Temple Check out my article about it.
We start the walk around 00:30 at night. They give us a "local guide" to accompany us at the entrance. He just accompanies us, he does not make any narration. Don't have that expectation. If we ask questions, he answers, but neither the mountain, nor the route, nor what we see on the road tell us anything about what we will see.
Our exit route is the so-called "camel trail", that is, the "camel trail". The road is wide and it is quite easy to walk as it climbs the mountain in a spiral. However, since the road is not easy to walk for the elderly and children, camel drivers wait for the guests along the way and pick up the tired from the point where they get tired. Since camel prices are also completely negotiable and I prefer walking, I give a price on this issue.
There is a resting point almost every 100 meters along the way. You can find many things such as tea, coffee, water, bread, snacks at these resting points. As you climb up the mountain you just need to pay attention, the prices increase. Tea, which was 15 Egyptian Pounds at its initial resting point, rose to 20, 25 and 30 as it peaked.
The camel road ends after a point. In other words, even if you go with a camel, you have to walk the last part of the summit climb.
The ascent takes about 3 hours at a normal pace. When we arrived at the final resting point, it was not yet 04:00 and the sun was rising at around 05:30. If you reach the resting point at the end of the summit walk early, you can lie down and sleep here. There are lots of cedars for hikers to sleep on. After resting here for 1 hour, we left the resting point at 05:00 at the summit. After this final resting point, there is a stairway with 700 steps leading to the summit.
All of the resting spots have multiple cats. I'm not sure how well they take care of the cats, but whenever I took food out of my bag, they immediately came and shared my food, they didn't seem very full. If you're going to Mount Sinai, bring something to eat for the cats, too.
You walk in the dark along the way to the summit. It may be good to bring a head lamp for a more comfortable walk. At some points, I took advantage of the light of the phone.
When you reach the summit, Mr. Elisha and Hz. You see the Elijah chapels. When we went, there was a ceremony in the Elisha chapel, and the other one was closed. Before sunrise, the ritual was over.
The primary purpose of everyone who goes here is to watch the sunrise, so there is a crowd before sunrise. It's important to go early and get a seat at a good angle.
Let me remind you one more point; You go to the summit of Mount Sinai at 2285 meters above sea level, and at sunrise, do not forget to take something with you, such as fleece, to protect you from the cold. At the first entrance, poncho-style clothing vendors greet you immediately, if you haven't taken anything with you, you can buy it from them.
I guess I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said I watched the most beautiful sunrise I've seen in a long time here. The changing of the sky from color to color, the gradual dissipation of the fog, the appearance of the first rays of the sun… All of them gave beautiful moments and frames.
On the one hand, we understood much more clearly what kind of geography we were in with the first sun rays hitting the other side of the mountain at sunrise. The hills lined by steep granite cliffs continued for miles and revealed a magnificent beauty.
After watching the sunrise and absorbing all these sights, we told our guide that we wanted to take the route called "Stairs of Repentance" as the landing route. He immediately said "no" at first. "It's not safe," he said, "it's very tiring." But the real hallmark of this place was these stairs. There were 700 of the same 3000 steps we walked on when we went to the top, and we wanted to walk that route. Finally, our guide was convinced, of course, in exchange for a tip, and we started the descent from the other route.
A cat that followed us from the summit went down all the stairs with us. We had to name the cat "Hacı", who knows how many times he went up and down these stairs...
The descent, as our guide said, was a little more challenging. Since the stairs were steep and the steps were wide, we were descending on our knees, but our views were so beautiful that no one complained.
There were even smiling faces that greeted us on the way, making us forget our tiredness.
We saw a few more chapels along the way, as this road is considered the holy road. Steward Chapel was one of them. However, none of them were open. When our guide told a somewhat dark story about this chapel, we accelerated our steps and continued on our way.
In the last part of our steep descent, St. Catherine's Monastery entered our view. It looked close, but we couldn't reach it. When we reached the monastery, the clocks showed 08:30 in the morning.
Since the monastery opened at 09:00, we sat and rested in the garden of the monastery, took a coffee and ate the provisions we brought for breakfast, again sharing with the cats.
Since we had little energy left to visit the monastery, I visited the church and garden and skipped the museum. Being up all the time from 12:30 at night to 10:00 in the morning made me tired. After all, I'm not young anymore.
We reached our vehicle on time. We caught up with the convoy that departed at 10:00 and started the journey back to Dahab. Everyone in the vehicle fell into a deep sleep on the way, myself included. It was already 12:00 noon when we reached Dahab.
If you want to take a look at all my Egyptian writings; Egypt travel notes
With a magnificent walk, a wonderful sunrise, and the happiness of having stuffed an important monastery in my pockets, I left myself on my clean sheets and continued to sleep in the hostel.
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