TO SINAI

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17 April. We traveled east into the Sinai Peninsula, driving UNDER the Suez Canal. The sinai is (of course) the desert where the Israelites wandered for 40 years on their way to the promised land. It's dry and rocky, with beautiful colors in the mountains and a clear turquoise blue sky. We stayed near the St. Katherine's Monastery, which is named for a Catholic saint who was martyred, and whose body was discovered (supposedly intact) many years later. It's also the spot where Queen Helene (Emperor Constantine's mother) had a vision that this was the place where Moses saw the burning bush, though I thought that site was back in egypt (in Midian, wherever that is) . It's also the location of Mt. Sinai, which Moses climbed TWICE to get the ten commandments. We also climbed the mountain, Tom walking up 3000 steep steps and I riding a camel. At the top, there are 750 more steps to the very top of the mountain, which I also climbed. Tom planned to ride the camel down to save his knees, but the Lonely Planet is right -- it's too hard on the male anatomy. We both ended up walking down the camel track in the dark.

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Photos

Mt. Sinai
And the Isaelites wandered here for 40 years? A rough life ...

At the top of Mt. Sinai
This small chapel commemorates the place where Moses twice received the Ten Commandments.