Mount Sinai

This Thursday/Friday morning, a bunch of us climbed Mount Sinai. The ride from Cairo was 6.5 hours, but could have been closer to 10hrs if we had hit traffifc. We left at around 6pm Thursday, and since we made such good time, arrived at the base of the mountain around 12:30 am Friday. We hired a bedouin guide named Sahla to take up the mountain, and they even provided us with a bodyguard (we're not sue whether this was because we were a group of all females or because we were Americans or a combination of the two. Either way, we didn't see any other groups with bodyguards). We began our trek around 1am and while the terrain was rough and rocky and we only had flashlights to light our way in the dark, there were multiple stops along the way to rest at bedouin cafes. It was difficult to see the mountains in the dark during our climb, but the stars were amazing! There were so many! I almost lost my balance trying to look at all of them! We finally reached the top of Mount Sinai around 4 am and hunkered down next to the other 100-plus people up there waiting for the sun to rise. It was freezing and the wind was howling and blowing sand in all of our eyes. It was extremely surreal being up on the mountain top at such an early hour. Hundreds of people were there for the same purpose -to become closer to God and/or to experience the beauty of nature. Besides European, American, and Asian tourists, there were also many Egyptians at the mountain. All of them seemed super excited and sang songs in Arabic throughout the morning. Finally, around 6am the sun began to rise. People began pointing, shouting, and clapping. Everyone rushed to the cliffside to watch it. It was gorgeous.

After the sun had risen, we began our trek down. The first part of the descent comprised of 700 hundred rock stairs, which for me were suprisingly easier to go down then they were to climb in the dark. Our descent took less time than our ascent (roughly an hour an 45 minutes) but it was painful going down the slippery sand and rocks at a downward angle. Sith the sun up, we were finally able to see all of the mountains surrounding us. They were incredible and had various colors and textures to them.

Once we'd reached the bottom, we rested outside St. Catherine's Monastery (it's closed on Fridays, so we didn't go in) and then began the long drive back. We were all tired and sore and passed out on the bumby bus ride back.