Located a few hours north of Sharm el-Sheikh is the mountain traditionally believed to be the mountain Moses climbed to receive the Ten Commandments. It's unknown if it is the actual mountain, but it definitely is a potential candidate.
We started our hike at 2:00 a.m. so we could view the sunrise from the summit. This may seem crazy, but there were hundreds of others doing the same thing that morning. The hike was easy (~2000 feet elevation gain and 2-3 miles long) and very slow due to all the people on the trail. The cloudless sky offered an amazing view of the stars. Along the way we stopped at a few tea houses to take a break and warm up. Near the top the trail steepened into 750 rock steps to the summit.
The 7500 foot summit was crowded with hundreds of people when we got there. I found a ridge just below the summit to set up my camera and have a bit of partial solitude. The sun soon came up and lit the sky and surrounding mountains with an orange glow. It was very beautiful, but I was disappointed it wasn't as good as other mountain sunrises I've seen.
After the sunrise we made our way down the mountain via a steeper and more interesting route. The 3750 Steps of Repentance were supposedly made by one monk. It was work enough just walking down them. On the way down we saw all kinds of interesting red rock formations and Elijah's Basin oasis. Near the end of the trail the mountain opened up to reveal an overhead view of St. Catherine's Monastery.
Sunrise from Mount Sinai
Chapel on Sinai
Morning Glow
Looking West
Crowd Coming Down
Imagine the Exodus
Steps of Repentance (3750 to be exact)
Trail Chapel
Egypt Trip
St. Catherine's Monastery
November 14-23 2007