Mount Sinai
October 8th, 2007 by stolisano
At 22:30 (or 10:30 p.m.) a new tour guide picked us up at our hotel in Sharm El Sheikh. We left in a mini tour bus, together with 11 other people, who were from England, Italy and Russia. We were so excited to finally be going to Mount Sinai, which is the mountain that Moses ascended to receive the tablets with the Ten Commandments from God.
The bus drove through the night at such high speed, that Mrs. Menger and I were worried if we were going to make it to our destination, Mount Sinai, which was about 2 1/2 hours away from the coast. We had to stop several times at checkpoints to show our Egypt Visas in our passports. When we arrived about 1:30 a.m. we were already exhausted. The tour guide introduced us to a Bedouin guide, that would be taking us to the summit of Mount Sinai. We were surprised to see hundreds, if not thousands, of other people getting ready to climb as we were. The guide informed us that our group would have the name “Ali Baba” and told us to just start walking. We were given flash lights, since it was pitch dark. Not to worry about getting lost, since we just had to follow the human trail.
We started on the trail and when we looked up, the only thing we could see was a slowly moving, blinking, snakelike body of people ascending the mountain. At this point, it did not look to be that far up, but the longer we walked, climbed, slid, and tripped along, we realized that the lights were never ending and winding more and more around the mountain. After about 45 minutes of stumbling behind cigarette smoking people and breathing in a fine, constant dust, Mrs. Tolisano convinced Mrs. Menger to finally consent to the many Bedouins who were lining the trail with their camels and inviting us to hire them with persistent “Hello, want a camel?”
We continued on the camels for about one hour longer. It was amazing to us, that these camels were so calm and knew exactly were to step as to not fall off the edge of the trail, which plummeted down pretty steep into complete darkness. The camels also had to make their way through all the hundreds of people, who were trekking ahead of us up the mountain. The Bedouin guide was yelling constantly “Camels” or “Camellos” or the same in other languages to warn the people. So many of them were almost trampled or frightened by the sudden appearance of a camel breathing down their neck. Through all this screaming of the guide and the people, the camels remained completely calm and steady. Listen to a short sound file of our camel ride by clicking on the audio at the end of this post.
The camels came to a stop and knelt down for us to get off. We thought that we were at the end of the trail and at the summit, only to discover that the human flashlight trail was continuing up higher. We lined up and started climbing the stairs, that lay ahead. Mrs. Menger remembered reading in her guide book that there were a total of 750 rocky and uneven steps that led towards the top. Mrs. Tolisano immediately had memories of climbing the Great Wall of China. We started to feel panicky and hurried, because of the hundreds of people pushing behind us, as well as the imminent sunrise. Some people started to grow weary and hired Bedouins, who offered to assist the climbers with a friendly “Need help?” Once hired, they slung the backpack over their shoulders and grabbed the person’s hand to pull them up the stairs. By that time the entire situation looked and felt chaotic and unreal to us. We continued to be surrounded by cigarette smoke and we were amazed how much trash we were finding along the sides of the stairway path. With many pauses to rest and catch our breath, we made it up to the summit. Mrs. Menger climbed to the furthest top she could go, while Mrs. Tolisano found a small/tiny square inch of rock on which to sit at a lower level. We each wrapped ourselves in a blanket, which we had brought along, anticipating the cold temperatures on top of the mountain. The sun was rising…
Mrs. Menger was surprised to find out that the woman standing next to her at the crowded top was actually from Jacksonville, Florida. What a coincidence. The sun came up and tuned the dark, black sky into beautiful colors. The lighter it became, the more we could make out the outline of the mountain that we had climbed. It was a breathtaking view.
We had imagined this moment to be a special spiritual time for us, instead the crowds were screaming, laughing, playing music, smoking, making fire, waving flags, and eating breakfast. There was no time nor a place for quiet reflection, which we had envisioned for such a sacred place. Mount Sinai is a holy place for all three major religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It was incomprehensible to us, that so many people would not respect the holy ground.
The more that the sun rose, it not only revealed the colors and texture of the mountain, but also the impact humans have had by leaving behind trash and cigarette butts. Mrs. Menger and I were very sad.
It was time to begin our descend before we would be trapped again by the masses of people. it would take us another 2 1/2 hours to climb the stairs and follow the windy round back to St. Catherine’s Monastery.
Towards the end, we were not sure if we could move one more step. We were tired, since we had not slept since the day before and had been climbing up and down a 5000 meter trail since 2 a.m. By the time we arrived at the monastery to meet up with our original tour guide, it was 8:30 a.m.
Camel Ride to Mount Sinai: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download16 Responses to “Mount Sinai”
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What an amazing adventure. I am sad to see that so many people have left trash along Mt Sinai. But the views are incredible. You both were brave to ride camels in the dark. Hopefully you were able to get some rest before you boarded the flight to Cairo.
Nick, Kyle, and Nathan just read and listened to the mps of your camel ride up Mt. sinai. Their comments:
Nathan wants to know if it was hard to breath because of the altitude?
Nick wants to know if the trash was mostly water bottles and cigarettes?
Kyle wants to know if the camels smelled bad? He thinks there must have been a lot of camel poop on the path.
Nathan wants to know how hard of a climb it was to get to the top?
Nick was happy to hear about he rocks…and he sends his thanks.
Have a great trip home!!
Hi guys,
Nathan: It was very hard to breath for Mrs. Tolisano. Mrs. Menger seemed to be in better shape. I don’t think it had much to do with the altitude. It was very hard to climb up 5000 meters in the middle of the dark night. We could not see very much. The steps at the end, were pretty steep and irregular, so that was the hardest part.
Nick: Yes, you are right. Most of the trash were water bottles and cigarettes. We also so a lot of food wrappings as well as tissue paper. nYou are welcome about the rocks.
Kyle: Mrs. Menger has a much more sensitive nose than Mrs. Tolisano. She says that it not only smelled like camel poop, but also like pee. Here is a picture from one little camel poop. We thought it should have been bigger according to the animal’s size.
Mrs. Freyer says yuck to the camel poop. And the boys had one final question…were there port-a-potties on the way up or down the mountain?
Amazing excursion! The audio was great…the students felt through your voice that it may have been cold..and you were probably a little nervous…enjoyed the realistic comments…
Science Class/ Tuesday a.m.
questions:
Britain: “Were the temperatures different when you were down at bottom of mountain and then at the top?”
Kitty: “Was the mountain path caved in …could you see a little bit of it or a lot?”
Danielle: “Did you see any animals on the way up besides camels?”
Christian: “Was there a River that made the mountains?….like the Grand Canyon?”
Joey: “Did you see any sink holes?”
Amanda: “How steep was the mountain?”
Ryan: “How tall was the mountain?”
Nathan: ” Was there quick sand in Egypt?”
The camel audio is hysterical! How brave you are. I’m so surprised that the whole atmosphere wasn’t more reverant at Mt. Sinai! It must have been a tough hike after being up for so long! You’re going to sleep like babies on the trip home!
What an incredible moment, to be on the top of Mt. Sinai for the sunrise! It is surprising that there was not the calm and quiet you would expect at such a holy place. And to find it full of trash is sad.
The audio of the camel ride is fantastic. I just wish I could be there to see it all in person!
We are so sorry that your “amazing” journey up to Mt. Sinai turned out to be a sad one at the end. I am so surprised that people were not more respectful once they reached the Holy place. My class wants to know why you traveled through night. Aren’t you so exhausted?
Hello Mrs. Tolisano and Mrs. Menger. I just wanted to let you know that we have all been looking at the blog and have enjoyed it. I also had a question. How many camels do you think were on Mt. Sinai? Were many people riding on them?
Mrs. Freyer and boys,
There was one shack labeled with “WC”, made by the bedouins. We chose not to use it, since it did not look very sanitary. Do you know what “WC” stands for?
Britain: yes, the temperature dropped dramatically as we slowly climbed our way up the mountain. Mrs. Menger and I had brought a blanket with, which we had to wrap ourselves in, plus our sweater and a scarf.
Kitty: The mountain path was not caved in.
Danielle: We only saw birds and a few donkeys besides the camels on the way up. There was also some cats at the monastery.
Christian: We don’t know if a river made these mountains. Our guess is not, since it is in the desert. Maybe you can research that questions more in detail and let us know what you find out?
Joey: We did not see any sink holes.
Amanda: Look at the photos we posted carefully and you will get an impression how steep the mountain was. It was very tiring to climb such a steep, winding incline for 5000 meters.
Ryan: The mountain is 2285 meters high.
Nathan: We did not see any quick sand.
Mrs. E’s class,
We had to travel through the night in order make it to the top of the mountain by sunrise. We were very tired after the climb, and still had to descend the mountain after that. After we returned to our hotel, we had just enough time to shower and then we were taken to the airport to fly back to Cairo.
Dear P2
We are so happy that you followed us to Egypt through the blog. Mrs. Menger and I estimated that there were probably around 40-50 camels on the path to Mount Sinai. Imagine this tall animals trying to climb the rocky pathway in between thousands of humans, who are flashing their cameras and shining their flashlights into their eyes or start screaming when they turn around to see a camel staring them into the eyes.
Hi Mrs. Tolisano and Mrs. Menger. I hope you are well. I was wondreing if you knew about how many people came and walked on Mount Sinai each day?
what part of jacksonville did live in? what di the camel rides feel like and was it like a horse?
I really have no clue how many people visit Mount Sinai each day, but the day we went there were hundreds. The woman I met on Mount Sinai lives in a condominium in downtown Jacksonville. Riding a camel did not feel like riding a horse. Camels are slower and more lumbering. They are really very gentle creatures.