“Cairo has never looked so good.”
—Melanie Watman as we entered Cairo this evening.
Today was a long day. It started at 1:15am when I received a wake up call and had to get to the bus by 1:45am. I think I slept for an hour—in my jeans and a hooded sweatshirt (I had the hood up the entire time). I couldn’t sleep because of the mosquitoes flying around my head and making a buzzing noise in my ears. Apparently there was a repellent in the room, but Mike and I didn’t realize it. Even with my hood up, I got three bites on my face (Melanie’s room also had the same problem—and she got bites on her face, legs, and back).
Why did we wake up so early? We woke up soon after going to sleep to climb Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise at 5:50am at the mountain’s peak. With flashlights in hand and wearing many layers of warm clothes (it was pretty cold at the beginning of the night as well as at the top of the mountain), we were led up the mountain by a Bedouin (pronounced: Bedwin), a type of person who lives in the desert. This man is employed by the Egyptian government to lead groups to the top of Mt. Sinai in order to give them job opportunities and ensure that touring companies don’t take advantage of visitors.
The group was moving up the mountain in the dark at a pretty swift pace. Melanie and I decided to take it easy up the mountain (we each have a history of knee problems). As we climbed the mountain, there were dozens of people offering camel rides up the mountain. A good number of non-Union people paid at least 80 pounds for this service but personally I would have been scared to ride a camel in the dark up steep slopes. There were rest stops along the path with drinks and candy, but I didn’t buy anything. After a quick rest stop here and there (anything longer than 5 minutes would have caused our body temperatures to drop), we continued on to the top of the mountain. I often looked up at the stars and I’ve never seen them so bright—it’s too bad the camera couldn’t capture these images. The ground was pretty rocky and I often was looking down so I wouldn’t trip or step in camel dung.
At the 2/3 mark, we had to climb ~750 steps to get to the top of Mt. Sinai. Even with our moderate pace, we caught up with the rest of the Union group and arrived at the top at 5:30am. I didn’t see any tablets, nor did I see Moses. Many aren’t sure of the exact location of Mt. Sinai, but this spot was chosen after it was geolocated using texts and historical background (not truly hard evidence). We spent 45-50 minutes at the top of the mountain to watch the sun rise. After hot days in Sharm, I quickly found myself shivering while wearing 4 layers, two hoods, and winter gloves. Check out this video below!
The Union group met at the entrance of St. Catherine’s Monastery where we then entered as a group. Interestingly, St. Catherine herself had problems with the ruler of Alexandra regarding religion among other things and was beheaded. Later, a monk saw St. Catherine’s angel and was instructed to bury her in its present location. There are many churches in the area, including one on the top of Mt. Sinai. During the 3rd/4th centuries, the Bedouins living in the area would attack the monastery for food and water and killed monks while doing so. In order to protect themselves, they built walls around the monastery for protection, similar to the walls that surround castles. The wells in the monastery apparently were used during the time of Moses, according to Zach. The monastery is also home to the burning bush. This brush is thought of to be the actual burning bush that is mentioned in the Old Testament because this location has been passed on from generation to generation, pieces of papyrus say this is the correct location, it was there in 642 AD when the Arabs came to Egypt, and pure faith.
After spending time admiring the burning bush, we returned to our hotel, had breakfast, and got back on the road to head back to Cairo. On our way back to the capital city of Egypt, we made three stops. The first stop was a Moses Water Spring, a well-type structure near the Suez Canal made from stones of the Roman time.
The second stop was an open-air Egyptian military museum depicting the events of the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. This site was 3.5 km from Moses Springs. Professor Ghaly was the translator for the special military guide who showed us around the site. He prefaced his translating by saying this is the Egyptian side and there might not be agreement. Before 1973, Israel controlled the Sinai Peninsula and in 1973, Egypt regained control. We saw an Israeli-built shelter made from reinforced concrete and baskets with stones to absorb cannon ball hits that housed 6-inch caliber cannons. The guide explained that the shelter contains an Israeli flag—and that the 6-pointed star represents the 6 countries Israel wanted to conquer, the top blue strip represents the Nile River, and the bottom blue stripe represents the Tigris/ Euphrates Rivers. I’m not sure that I agree with this explanation being that the Israeli flag was designed in the 1800s, long before the creation of Israel in 1948, but I heard what the military personnel had to say.
We then left the museum and continued our ride back to Cairo. In order to move from Asia to Africa, we took a tunnel that went under the Suez Canal. Unlike tunnels in the New York City area (that were bored from hard rock), the Suez tunnel went through soft sand and needed reinforcement. It is located 10 meters below the canal and is ~4km long. There is a toll to use this tunnel—5 pounds (less than $1) for cars and 10 pounds for buses. After another hour in the bus, we arrived in Cairo and had dinner at a local restaurant where I had chicken and French fries. Next, we checked into our hotel, the Mercure, which was the first hotel we stayed in while in Egypt—we’ve come full circle. Moving around the country has been very exciting, though it is nice to return to where we started three weeks ago. After a night in a hotel like last night, Cairo was a sight for tired and weary eyes.
Tomorrow we take a long bus ride north to Alexandria for a day trip and return to Cairo in the evening. Any questions!? Ask! I’ll answer them! Thanks for reading!
**One Gustave L. Levy Place is the location of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City**
During your tour of the military museum, was any mention made by the tour guide that the Israelis were attacked on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year? Did the guide refer to the conflict as the Ramadan War? Was any post-war context provided, i.e. Camp David Peace Accord entered into by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter? Any comment on modern-day relations between the two countries or was his explanation of the etiology of the design of the Israeli flag emblematic of current thinking?
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