The Not-Really-Mt. Sinai

The actual location of Mt. Sinai in the Egyptian desert seems to be a place of some confusion. Among the tourist circuit is a well known spot set up to visit, complete with a monastery and a "burning bush". Amongst the locals, that tourist spot is known as St. Katherine's.

Well.

"Mt. Sinai" (the touristy one) is not REALLY Mt. Sinai.

As I found out recently. (Which explained some lingering questions I had when I was standing at the top of it...)

Here's what Wikipedia said about the institution of Mt. Sinai: (because we all know Wikipedia is the end-all-be-all of information sources)

According to Bedouin tradition, this is the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. However, the earliest Christian traditions place this event at the nearby Mount Serbal, and a monastery was founded at its base in the 4th century; it was only in the 6th century that the monastery moved to the foot of Mount Catherine, following the guidance of Josephus's earlier claim that Sinai was the highest mountain in the area.

 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Sinai)

SO. What do you think about that?

I think I had a fun afternoon of hiking to a contrived spot of invented religious importance. That last statement may or may not be somewhat controversial, I realize.

But.

I went. Because that's where our tour group was. And because, well, I like hiking and didn't know anything about it not reeeeeeeally being Mt. Sinai at the time.

My group left our little hotel about three hours prior to Sunset. We drove back to the parking lot at the base of St. Katherine's monastery and hiked past it to a Camel parking lot. This was my first chance on the tour to ride a Camel and I was stoked! I planned from day 1 to ride a Camel here. No one else seemed too keen on the idea in earlier days, but by the time we got to the mountain, there were about six of us who went for the Camel ride. Five hiked up the "Easy" path - the same path the Camels went up.

Three people on our tour were hard-core hikers. You know the type. The ones who see a challenge in everything. They go to Military-style boot camps just for giggles. They thrive on adrenaline.

While the junkies started up the most difficult path,  the 3750 Steps of Repentance, (Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? I know.) I found myself promptly on the back of a very stubborn Camel. Exciting! And high-flying. Those suckers are tall.
And though it may not have been exactly desirable, I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't spat-at by one of the "Ships of the Desert."

My Camel was slooooooooooooooooooow. Really, I should have asked my Camel leader for a fast camel, but it didn't occur to me while we were "boarding." My guide's name was Musef (Moses). My guess is that he was pushing 17. And boy-o-boy was he chomping at the bit to get married.

"Bedouins are looking for wives! You will marry me, I will give you 20 camels."
My riding companions had a laugh and told him he'd have to do better as I'd already had a much better offer from a Sheik. Musef frowned, but kept flirting.

He said to my friend Ken, the fifty-something Aussie man married to Pat:
"For five Camels, I will get you a new wife, a strong wife, not like this one (motions to Pat), she is old and tired"

Well.

The Camels only take you about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. So we met up with our tour-arranged mountain guide (who was a freaking rock-star of a mountain goat man) and the rest of the normal hikers from the tour and picked our way up the last third of the mountain. When we reached the top, we found our Adrenaline junkies calmly waiting for us (and they had been for about 45 minutes), wrapped in camel-hair blankets and sipping on hot chocolate (There are local Bedouins that live on the top of the mountain for a week at a time to sell food and trinkets to the tourists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Sheesh.

I was a bit shocked to see a very old church on the top of the mountain. Apparently it is a Greek Orthodox church, built in 1934, on top of an older, ruined church. It supposedly houses the site from which the Tablets for the Ten Commandments were carved by God. The Church is closed permanently to the public.

Molto Interessante! And suspect.

I expected more. Not more buildings. More holiness. More spirituality. More of a feeling. Ya know? It was just sort of... "Meh..."

Don't get me wrong - there is always an astonishing feeling when standing at the top of a mountain and taking in the grandeur of all that lies below. But for the love of Pete, we were standing at the top of Mt. Sinai. The place where Moses talked to God! The place should feel reverent.

Perhaps I expected too much?

In any case, I watched a gorgeous sunset over the Sinai Desert, after I'd wrapped myself in one of those thick, camel-hair blankets (they're warm and lovely and utterly stinky) and had changed into a heavier jacket, gloves and a hat. It was COLD at the top of the mountain.

We hiked down in the dark. If ever you trek up Mt. Sinai for sunset be sure to bring a headlamp! It is much, much too dark and rocky and treacherous a path to try to walk in the dark. I am completely in love with my headlamp after our bonding experience on the hike down Mt. Sinai. Or Not-Mt-Sinai.

Whatever.

Headlamps = Good.

Hiking = Good.

Camels = Good.

"Mt Sinai" = fun hike. Holy place mentioned in the bible? Doubtful.