Tour 1 took us to the St. Catherine's monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Upon entering, we stumbled on a wedding ceremony in the courtyard. We added our good wishes to the celebration and then entered the sanctuary for some quiet moments with other tourists from around the world. Mohammed pointed to the monastery's most treasured artifact - a portion of St. Catherine's arm. We learned the story of how the saint was decapitated in Alexandria and her body was tranported away by angels. In the 9th century, monks at the monastery (the oldest continually-operating monastery in the world) found St. Catherine's remains at the top of a nearby mountain, thus the arm (we didn't really see the arm, it was in a box.) Anyway, it's a very impressive place, partly because its first major benefactor was the emporer Constanatine's mother way back in the 300s. It's also awesome for containing the Burning Bush that Moses encountered in the desert. Monks at St. Catherine's claim that the bush in their courtyard is the very same and that it survives without being watered. We thoroughly enjoyed the monastery museum that contains part of the monastery's massive collection of ancient icons and early Christian books. Exiting the compound, we came upon the abbot reaming out the Orthodox priest who apparently performed the wedding ceremony without permission. He scolded the priest for "dishonoring the monastery." Maybe a wedding would make the 27 celibate monks looking on feel bad or reconsider things? In retrospect, it did seem pretty odd to hold a wedding there!
Tour 2 was to the peak of Jabal Musa, also known as the Mountain of Moses, also known as Mt. Sinai. This was the main draw for us in coming to Egypt, and it's a major stopping point as we visit biblical sites in several countries. The trip up took three hours, and we made it back down in less than two. We decided to be non-conformist by eschewing the most common tourist practices. First, we went up for sunset instead of sunrise. The sunrise expedition and crowd near the 9,000-or-so foot summit each morning is described as a 'circus.' There were only a dozen of us on the mountain as the sun set. We also decided not to ride camels 3/4 of the way up (the final ascent involves 750 steep stone steps.) So we walked, and our new Oboz hiking shoes are now coverered with red dust. It was worth it, and the views were truly spectacular. As we started back down, a dozen or so religious pilgrims - mostly senior women wearing sandals - arrived with their Bedouin guides. How disappointing it must have been to come all the way from whatever Spanish-speaking country they traveled from and find themselves in near dark. I can't imagine how they made it down the mountain with those shoes. We scurried down the steps and the trail, passing a herd of camels that glared and hissed at us in the dark. We had borrowed "torches" (Brtitish for flashlights) from our new rock-climbing friends at the camp, and they were a life-saver on the descent. Our driver back to the camp was a twelve year-old Bedouin boy with a pick up truck.
So it's been another eventful day. I'm going to take some Tylenol for my sore back and the knee I twisted coming down the mountain too eagerly and then go to sleep. Leroy's already snoozing. Any typos will be fixed tomorrow. Hopefully I can add photos from the last couple days when we return to Israel tomorrow afternoon.
So it's been another eventful day. I'm going to take some Tylenol for my sore back and the knee I twisted coming down the mountain too eagerly and then go to sleep. Leroy's already snoozing. Any typos will be fixed tomorrow. Hopefully I can add photos from the last couple days when we return to Israel tomorrow afternoon.
