The Monastery of St Katherine and Mount Sinai are among the most important and beautiful historic, religious, and natural sites in Sinai and Egypt as a whole. However, most visitors spend far too little time here and visit when the sites are at their most crowded. There are basically three options for climbing Mount Sinai:
- Mount Sinai sunrise – an overnight excursion with a night-time hike, sunrise shared with hundreds of other visitors, and a visit to the Monastery in the morning after a sleepless night.
- Mount Sinai sunset – a daytime hike, a peaceful sunset with few or no other people, and a night spent comfortably in bed.
- Hidden Mount Sinai – discovering the hidden treasures of the Mount Sinai–Ras Safsafa range on a full-day or overnight hike, enjoying a peaceful sunset and spending the night either back at your hotel or in a Bedouin garden.
Before or after your climb to Mount Sinai, a visit to the Monastery of St Katherine is a must. Built on the site of the Burning Bush and continuously inhabited since the 6th century, it is the oldest working monastery in the world.
Visiting the Monastery of St Katherine
The Monastery is open to visitors from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Monday to Thursday and on Saturdays. It is closed on Fridays, Sundays, and Orthodox religious holidays.
You can visit the Monastery independently, but it is located a few kilometres outside the town centre. If needed, we can arrange transport for you – just give us a call.
Mount Sinai Sunrise
Most people climb Mt Sinai (Jebel Mousa) at night, starting from the Monastery of St Catherine around 2-3 AM. The usual Mount Sinai hiking trail is via the Camel Path, then, after sunrise on the top, people descend the same way back to the Monastery and visit it. You can do the hike independently, but you must have a Bedouin guide who is available at the Monastery. You can also sleep on the top in somewhat rough circumstances, as cafeterias offer free accommodation as long as you hire a blanket and/or do some purchases. The noise at sunrise is shocking, but sleeping on the top is an interesting experience. If you need help, we can organize the hike – give us a call.
Mount Sinai Sunset
You could do the hike during the day as well, it is actually a much more peaceful experience, and the colours at sunset are even more beautiful. Again, you must take a Bedouin guide who are available at the Monastery 24 hours a day. You should start around 3 hours before sunset. It’s a good time: not as hot as midday in the summer, and still warm enough in winter. If you start descending after the sun dipped behind the horizon – it’s still not proper sunset – you have enough time to get back to the Monastery before darkness sets in. If you need help, we can organize the hike – give us a call.
Hidden Mount Sinai
Those who are not in a hurry can discover an amazing world just a few steps off the main tourist path. The interconnected secluded basins atop the range harbour intact and ruined chapels, hermit cells, gardens, and lead to look-out points at the top of steep gullies with views on different areas of the surroundings, including a picture-perfect bird-eye view of the Monastery of St Katherine. You can easily spend a full day discovering the range before climbing to the summit of Mt Sinai for sunset. You could then either descend back to town before total darkness sets in, or sleep in a Bedouin garden in a nearby valley and see another monastery the next day.
This is one of our regular tours that we highly recommend. It is actually easier than the direct summit climb as we do it in three steps, with flat walks and rests between them.
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