climbing mt. sinai

after nearly 8 months of visiting countless buddhist and hindu religious sites we finally are pilgrims ourselves. our trip to the summit of mt. sinai, where moses received the ten commandments from god, began at 11:30pm when we left the confines of our guesthouse and set out on a two hour bus ride through the sinai peninsula to the monastery of st. catherine's at the base of the 3000 meter mountain. our group of 12 met up with a bedouin guide, whose job it was to see that we safely made it to the top of the mountain before sunrise, roughly 4 hours in our future… at that point, we should have realized that the hike to the summit would be far more difficult than the guidebooks led on. in fact, the 6-kilometer (roughly 3 mile) hike to the summit, capped off with a climb up 750 steep stone stairs, was by far the most physically challenging thing that we have done in all of our travels. the somewhat steep, gravel and rock switchbacks seemed never-ending in the middle of the night. and when we did finally reach the base of the stone stairway, we were long done wondering if the trip was worth all of the effort. however, perhaps through divine intervention, we persevered and found ourselves amid a few hundred other pilgrims at the summit of mt. sinai roughly an hour before sunrise. as we vied for a place to sit among the crowd, we were treated to a spectacular sunrise. as the sky brightened, we saw just how far up 3000 meters really is. the rugged dessert mountains and the sand valleys below seemed almost unearthly from such a vantage point. shortly after sunrise, the crowds dispersed and we were left with a few moments of solitude to pray and give thanks for all of the blessings we have and for all of the experiences of our 8 months adventuring around the earth.
our descent back down the steep stairs and never-ending switchbacks was somewhat less grueling, but challenging none-the-less. we ended our hike, where it began, at the greek orthodox monastery of st. catherine's. the chapel at st. catherine's is one of the oldest surviving christian sites in the world and it is home to what is regarded as the burning bush where god spoke to moses. the beautifully maintained gardens and walkways made for a nice end to our long night of climbing. after re-boarding the bus back to dahab, our group of 12, alina and i included, quickly fell to sleep. we made it back to the jasmine guesthouse in time for breakfast, a shower and a long afternoon in the confines of our air conditioned room catching up on missed sleep and resting our tired legs. david