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~Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's~
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EGYPT, PHARAOH'S BATH
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~ MOUNT SINAI AND SAINT CATHERINE'S
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~ MOUNT SINAI AND SAINT CATHERINE'S MONASTERY~
We were led to another cave that literally billowed steam out if its mouth. We were discouraged from entering it by both the heat, and our guide. A hot spring within its recesses invites only a few valiant souls to enter its superheated water. We stood outside the cave in the path of its purifying steam and were amazed at just how scalding it sometimes felt. Our curiosity overtook us and we simply had to ask for some information about this fantastic site. It undoubtedly was considered sacred and holy by the local people, and possibly had been for millennia.
Known as the "Pharaoh's Bath", Hammam Fara’un is indeed a pilgrimage site, known for its curative powers for many diseases. Our guides said that the hot springs healed diseased joints of the body, and that the sand at the site cured skin diseases. I was overjoyed to have been brought to this special place. I thanked our drivers and guides for the unexpected stop at this glorious site. They smiled at one another, and pointed off toward the beach. What we saw seemed impossible.
Somehow, it appeared that the beach was actually steaming. On closer inspection, not only steaming, but boiling! Although the day was quite cool, I immediately took off my shoes and socks to check out this phenomena "first-foot". If I allowed my feet to sink into the sand a bit too deeply I was amazed to feel that it actually burned them. Where the waves of the Red Sea lapped up onto the bubbling, steaming sand, fingers of warm water interlaced with the sea's much cooler water and played with my feet and ankles. I felt as giddy as a small child on the playground of her dreams.
We performed a Water Healing Ritual just above the edge of the sea with water that was literally heated by the Earth's embrace as it percolated to the surface of the sand. The energy was phenomenal. Our gratitude was immense. The misty beach was covered with many small, smooth stones and I asked that one speak to me if it was meant to come to Sedona. A chorus of stones answered my request. Some have been gifted to friends and family across America. A few of them have joined my set of massage stones, and again are heated before being placed between the toes of many blissed-out clients. A bit of sand also agreed to be collected from the beach and blesses an altar here in Sedona. We return to the van in a state of euphoria, feeling blessed and honored by the Earth, the Sky, the Rocks, the Sun and the Sea.
The starkness of the Sinai desert became the prevailing landscape after we left the roadway that ran parallel to the Red Sea and then turned inland toward the heart of the peninsula. There was amazing beauty, somehow, in the monochromatic and nearly lifeless terrain. It was craggy and sharp and strong and unspoiled. Life, by some means, held strong within the barrenness. It remains clear in my memory, wholly attractive to me and completely unlike any other area of the world I have experienced.
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