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~Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's~
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EGYPT, BURNING BUSH OF MOSES
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~ MOUNT SINAI AND SAINT CATHERINE'S
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~ MOUNT SINAI AND SAINT CATHERINE'S MONASTERY~
We arrived at the village of St. Catherine's after the monastery's closing time, and proceeded to our hotel. There was an edge of coldness in the air, yet it felt even colder inside the hotel's lobby. By the time we made it to our room, the air was feeling quite blustery. The room was unfortunately even chillier, the heat did not seem to function, and then the power went out. We rather blindly searched for extra blankets in the closet. A call to the front desk advised us that all of the hotel's extra blankets had already been given out, and that the length of time to repair the power failure was unknown.
As we shivered in the dark under our meager bed linens we had time to fully consider our 2 a.m. scheduled ascent up Mount Sinai. We were to ride camels as far as possible up the peak and then dismount and climb an ascent of stairs to the top of the mountain to view the sunrise. While fully dressed and covered in bed, with our hats still upon our chilly heads, we had ample time to consider our options. We could not deny that even with all of these layers around and upon us we nonetheless felt freezing.
We contacted our guide to change our plans. Although the experience would certainly have been beautiful, we decided that it would be nothing short of suffering to complete the trek up the 7,500 ft. peak in the dead of night in midwinter. Our revised plan allowed us to remain in our chilly room through the night and ascend the mountain in the morning. We huddled close and slept little. A brilliant change this was, as snow actually fell on Mount Sinai overnight.
In Exodus it is written that on Mount Sinai (other names for the same peak include Mt. Horeb, Mt. Moses, and Jebel Musa) Moses had his vision of the burning bush and received the message from God to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt. At this site he also received the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Although some scholars today dispute the exact location of the site described in Exodus, Mount Sinai is considered quite sacred by Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Our time to explore St. Catherine's Monastery was cut quite short because of our change in plans. The heavily fortified monastery dates back to the sixth century. We were shown niches above the main doors of the monastery walls where boiling oil was actually poured upon any marauders intent upon invading the holy site. The main church of the site is called St. Catherine’s, and it has sections which actually predate the sixth century. Its cedar doors are over 1400 years old and strongly caught my attention. I snapped a picture of them before I was advised that it was not permitted. We only had a few minutes to take in the beauty and energy of the church.
Outside, we connected with what is considered to be a very ancient relative of the original burning bush of Moses. The story associated with it states that it is the only member of its species growing on all of the Sinai Peninsula, and that cuttings from it will not root or grow elsewhere. It appeared vibrant and was quite large and vigorous. Its cascading vines were surprisingly long and healthy. I was again a bit dismayed to be standing in the presence of such a well-known religious icon.
We were informed that St. Catherine's houses thousands of priceless religious icons, as well as the largest collection of illuminated manuscripts outside of the Vatican itself. We had time to literally run through a few rooms of the library and museum housed within the monastery, giving us time to only begin to appreciate the age and depth of the many volumes and icons that are stored and displayed in the museums of St. Catherine's.
We were informed by our guide that we were required to return to Cairo by a certain time that day, and he indicated that it was very important that we honor the schedule. We left St. Catherine's monastery a bit sadly, knowing that we could have easily spent many, many hours exploring its riches. Our focus then became our camel ride up Mount Sinai. We approached the mountain with excitement.
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