Sharm-el-Sheikh & Mt. Sinai, Egypt

We arrived in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm-el-Sheikh at 6 a.m. on Thursday, April 19, for a 1-day visit.  The city sits on a promontory on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.  Once a modest fishing village, it is now a major port featuring turquoise waters, long sand beaches and scuba diving among vibrant coral, dramatic rock formations and underwater cliffs.

While many of our fellow travelers chose to stay in or close to the city in order to take advantage of the various features I just mentioned, Janis and I elected the 8-hour excursion option titled "St. Catherine's Monastery" because, among other things, it promised a "walk in the footsteps of Moses at Mt. Sinai."  The monastery, yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in the city of Saint Catherine, about a 3-hour ride from Sharm-el-Sheikh, and lies at the foot of Mt. Sinai where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments.

When we pulled our curtains back, we were already docked in the harbor of Sharm-el-Sheikh and this is what we saw from our veranda.

  

From various other locations around the ship, we could also see this:

    
                                   
For  reasons not worth getting into,  I decided to stay onboard ship, so Janis went on the tour without me.  The narrative and photos from here on out in this blog post are hers.

We left the port at 5:30 a.m. to begin the 180-mile drive to the Monastery of Saint Catherine. We headed NW across the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula described by our guide as "one of the dearest parts of Egypt's heart." After introducing himself and telling us that he has a degree in Egyptology, the guide introduced the driver and the accompanying security man who, we were told, was armed with a machine gun.  Thankfully, there was no need for him or the use of his gun on our trip.  We were advised that we could take photos of everything on the road except for the security checkpoints.

I wasn't unnerved by the presence of security.  In part, I've become used to it and also I am aware of history.  There have been many terrorist incidents in Egypt, including on April 19, 2017 when gunmen attacked an Egyptian checkpoint near Saint Catherine's Monastery killing one policeman and wounding four.  ISIS claimed reponsibility and vowed more attacks against Egyptian Christians who represent 10% of the people in Egypt.

Tourism, one of the primary drivers of Egypt's economy, has suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks over the past few years and our guide, mindful of the impact that has had on tourism, told us that he wanted us to have a good experience and tell our friends back home about it.

Sharm-el-Sheikh, referred to as "Sharm" by Egyptians and Israelis alike, was, as noted above, the point of departure for our trip. It is located in Asia (4% of Egypt is in Asia and 96% is in Africa) on the Red Sea at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. It is considered to be one of the most important governates in Egypt as the administrative center of the South Sinai that includes smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba, which we passed through on our drive.  Though commonly known as a resort town, prior to becoming a tourist mecca it was a fishing village that, because of its strategic importance, was transformed into a major port and naval base for the Egyptian navy.  The name means, or has come to mean, City of Peace and it has been the site of many Middle East peace conferences.  Sharm has about 150,000 people.  The primary source of employment is the tourist industry.

  

The scenery during our 3-hour drive was of the desert and extraordinary sandstone and granite rock formations that looked like they were sculpted by humans instead of by the elements.  We passed a few Bedouin villages and were told that though previously nomadic, Bedouins are increasingly creating more permanent settlements in the Sinai desert.  About 40,000 Bedouins live in Sinai, arriving in the 7th century with the arrival of Islam.  Some photos of the rock formations and Bedouin settlements are below.

                              

Saint Catherine's Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in a triangular area between the Desert of El-Tin, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Sinai in the town of St. Catherine. The town has a population of less than 1,500, most of whom work at the few hotels in the area primarily used by hikers and at the monastery.  The monastery is at the foot of Mount Sinai in a gorge at an altitude of 4,854 feet.  In the 4th century, a chapel dedicated to the martyr St. Catherine was erected on the site next to what is believed to be the same Burning Bush from which God spoke to Moses.  Historians differ as to whether the chapel was built by the Byzantine Empress Helen or by her son, Constantine Caesar, for his mother.  But it is believed that the chapel was intended to celebrate the freedom to practice Christianity in the Roman Empire and provide a place for ascetics who had lived in Sinai since early times to live silently and worhsip in peace free from barbarian assaults.  In the 6th century, the Byzantium Emperor Justinian responded to a request by the Sinai monks for protection from nomadic raids and he ordered the building of a fortified monastery on the site.  The result is what is known today as the Monastery of St. Catherine that includes a small but magnificant chuch.  About 75 Greek monks reside in the monastery today. 

We were able to photograph the outside of the monastery and spaces inside the fortification but not in the buildings themselves. And, of course, we could photograph the descendant of the biblical burning bush, which is inside the fortified monatery.  See photos below.  I wish I had been able to photograph the inside of the church.  It was gorgeous and chock full of intact colorful art and murals as well as countless chandeliers and what looked like ner tamids, the eternal lamps found in synagogues.  For a moment I thought I was in an antique shop.

                                                                          
                                 

Here's a photo of my new friend Vicki Richburg and me at St. Catherine's.

After about an hour and a half, we returned to the bus trying to avoid the many vendors selling rocks, post cards, scarves, etc.  Some of the vendors were young children and when asked why they weren't in school, the answer was that they were helping their family earn a living.