Mt. Sinai 2004

We had the opportunity to go to Mt. Sinai while we were in Egypt for our study abroad. We spent pretty much the whole first day on the bus driving from Alexandria to a hotel near the mountain. Then, after just a few hours of sleep, we drove to St. Catherine's monastary at the base of the Mount, in time to start hiking up the mountain at about 2:30 am. We had to leave that early so that we would get to the top of the mountain in time to watch the sunrise.

About two thirds of the hike up the mountain the path is wide and level. It goes through several long, lazy switchbacks as it crawls it way up the mountain side. However, the last third of the hike is much more rugged. there is a series of stairs that a monk in the middle ages carved into the rock to allow for an easier climb to the top. However, being hand carved hundreds of years ago, these stairs are very steep, uneven, and crumbly. It was a bit of a challenge, but nothing insurmountable.

Then I started to notice what some of the other tourists were wearing. (There were several dozen other people on the mountian - ours was but one of many different groups making the pilgrimage to the top that morning.) Most of the other tourists seemed to be from Russia, and I noticed that a significant number of the ladies in the other groups were wearing high-heeled sandals. I was flabergasted. I mean, sure, the hike wasn't that bad, but why make things harder for you than you need to? Many of them struggled to get to the top in time for the sunrise. There's a lesson for life in there, I think.

Once on top, we only had to wait half an hour or so for the sun to rise. It was beautiful. The land is remarkable for how rugged and lifeless it appears. There is no green - only brown. There are no smooth curves - only rough, jagged rocks. I gained a greater appreciation for the travails of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness.

After the sunrise we had a testimony meeting. I'm sure we weren't the first group to do that, and I'm sure we won't be the last, but it felt like something special, to bear testimony and sing hymns on top of Mount Sinai.

Once we got to the bottom of the mountain again, we toured St. Catherine's Monastery
. Highlights of the tour included the burning bush (they claim that it is in fact the burning bush that the Lord used to speak with Moses), a room full of bones (I think they exhume the remains of monks from previous generations when they run out of space in order to have room to bury the newly dead), and a shelf with the remains of the monk who carved out all the stairs to the top of the mountain back in the Middle Ages. Fun stuff.