Day 9 Egypt With Ms.Sarah

Day 9–Sharm El Sheikh/St. Catherine’s Monastery

We enjoyed a few morning hours at the resort and set out for St. Catherine’s Monastery at 1:00.

St. Catherine was one of the most popular early Christian saints. Born in the early 4th century, she was from a wealthy Alexandrian family and tortured for her beliefs. First she was spun on a spiked wheel (Catherine wheel) and then beheaded. The marble sarcophagus in the church contains two silver caskets which are said to hold her remains.

The Monastery is Greek Orthodox and sits at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It is considered the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world. It was founded in 527 by Emperor Justinian. Constantine’s mother St. Helena had previously built a chapel on this site in 337 where it is believed that Moses saw the burning bush. The monastery was renamed St. Catherine in the 9th or 10th century after monks claimed to have found the intact body of the saint on a nearby mountain. The monastery holds 2000 icons and a collection of priceless early Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican.

The traditional Mount Sinai is actually the name of a collection of peaks, sometimes called the Holy Mountains. At its southern end is Mount Musa (Moses), traditionally believed to be the place where Moses communicated with God and received the Ten Commandments. This is the mountain we climbed when we arrived. It was late evening so most of this was done in the dark. Some of us took camels up. It is 7500 feet high. The trail begins behind the monastery. It took us approximately 5 hours to hike 7.39 miles up and down this mountain. The hardest part was the 750 steps to the summit. At the top are a small church and a mosque as well as “Moses’ Cave”. It was a great experience but a tough climb.

We spent the night at a hotel not far from the monastery.