One of the best things about Egypt was getting to see St. Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Sharm and we were glad we didn't take our kids. We were probably stopped by internal border patrol guards about 6 times. If they asked us where we were from, we tried to avoid saying we were American -- that just brings trouble in this part of the world (our driver warned us of this). We usually just told people we were from Switzerland. I mean, that's where we live, right?
St. Catherine's Monastery is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, dating back to the 4th century. The reason why it has been preserved, even through Islam is that the prophet Muhammed himself protected it by personal edict. It has an amazing collection of ancient Biblical texts -- one of the gospels dates back to the 5th century!
Here we are standing outside the monastery, at the foot of Mt. Sinai.
This is supposedly the place of the "Burning Bush". Hmmm. That bush has lasted quite awhile.
We hired a guide to take us up Mt. Sinai. Rob said that we were really fast hikers, so the guide started out really fast, taking us up the steep, staired route.
As you can see, I got winded pretty quickly. My body just doesn't work quite the same when I'm pregnant!
Really? That much further to go?
A picturesque "door to the heavens."
Yeah, here I am. On top of Mt. Sinai. It really makes me understand Moses better. It makes sense that, after a vigorous climb and a long talk with God, he was, of course, upset to come down from the mountain and find the children of Israel worshipping a golden calf! The other interesting part of the scenery is how barren it is. I mean, the burning bush was probably the only bush around. There was virtually no vegetation at all on the mountain.
Rob and I with our camera-timer photo. We were the only people at the top, which was nice because it gave us some time to meditate upon it's grandeur and religious significance.
A look at the barren valley below. Is this really where the children of Israel wandered for 40 years? No wonder the Promised Land was such a reward!
Back down the easy trail to the monastery.
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