Sharm El Sheikh

El- Sheikh.

Situated on the Sinai peninsular and bordered by the warm Red Sea, Sharm el Sheik is part of Egypt that lies in Asia Minor. If you look at a map, you will notice two fingers of water at the north western end of the Red Sea. One leads to the right and ends at Aqaba, the other leads to the left and terminates at Suez and that is where we were headed. The whole block of land lying between these two channels is Sinai. Although originally part of the African land mass, the land split, forming a narrow, shallow channel of the Red Sea, which is widening at the rate of ½ inch per year. In ten million years from now, this could be serious. It would add another 70 miles across, not to mention how much land is displaced upwards in the form of mountains which Sinai has plenty already, caused by the original split 30 million years ago. Interesting thought but explains how the world’s land mass changed its shape and continues do so.

We were off to see Saint Catherine’s Monastery, a forth century complex at the foot of mount Sinai, the spot where Moses climbed up the mountain to bring down the tablets of the ten commandments.

The Byzantine Empress Helena established a monastery here to sanctify the site where the burning bush appeared to Moses. An off shoot of said bush is still there for all to see. The complex is called Saint Catherine’s monastery as the church is dedicated to the martyr, Catherine. She was tortured and killed by the Romans for steadfast observance of Christian teachings. Later on, other Romans killed people for not following strict Christian teachings. Its all a matter of timing. Our Martyr was an Egyptian lady who lived in Alexandria, a very good person and from a wealthy family, according to the historians. Legend has it that her body was spirited away and found on Sinai’s highest peak 300 hundred years after her death. All this religious significance ensures the Monastery is on the must see list.

The drive took three hours along well made roads with armed guards at road blocks every 20 miles or so. We passed a United Nations fort along the way. We were close to Gaza and Israel in this area. The Egyptians are anxious to avoid spill over of their troubles into this part of Sinai and who can blame them.

The land was a changing scene of rugged red colored hills, some with fascinating stripes of fault or ore bands containing iron, copper and manganese and rolling desert. This area has extensive mines and quarries going back to the Pharaoh days. Mine spoil was everywhere. We passed many dry wadis, large stretches of sand and sand dunes, Bedouin encampments and the occasional lonely camel or herd of goats. Sometimes, the bus groaned up a steep hill and sharp bend to immediately plunge down the other side, revealing a massive valley and distant mountains. For such a small area it provided impressive changing scenery. It is not short of wild animals, there are gazelle and Ibex in this area besides birds, like hawks, eagles and vultures.

Finally we turned off the main road and passed yet another road side security check point down a small road to the walled enclosure of the Monastery. It looked like a Crusader fort surrounded by gardens and olive groves. A very large granite mountain, unique to the area, formed the backdrop. We had arrived.

It was obvious that this Monastery had seen a lot of development over the years. The Christian Roman Emperor Justinian expanded the small compound into a fortress, basilica and monastery, which functions today and has 30 dedicated Orthodox monks. The buildings have withstood a number of assaults. Battlements and overhanging balconies were used to drop missiles and hot oil on any attackers or unwelcome guests. Now the Monastery is surrounded by trees and flowers and looks like a Hollywood film set compared to the other buildings we saw on our way here.

At the back of the Monastery there are 3000 steps of repentance leading to the top of Mount Sinai to where Moses received the ten commandments from God. The journey takes three hours one way and its very, very hot. This road is used by pilgrims. We did not do this bit.

We, and what seemed to be about 40 thousand others, tried to get into a three foot wide doorway to enter the site. We had to have a lot of patience. This is the oldest original functioning building we have ever been in. Inside, the monks were about to start their devotions. They were dressed as officials of the Orthodox church. These monks are here for life. When they die, their bones are kept in the crypt below along with all the other monk’s bones for the last 1600 years. It is quite a gruesome pile.

As the building was only open from 9 pm till noon and had so many tours at the site, we were hurried through the various rooms. We passed Moses’ water well, housed in a small room. It is still operable. We continued along the passage way until we reached the basilica.

The main isle of the basilica was square but radiant. The altar was dressed in gold which glittered in the sun coming through the windows. On either side of the main isle were the richly carved wooden chairs for the monks. We were informed that they were made from cedar. Filing slowly through the side isle, we observed many ancient icons of the various martyrs, saints and holy family. Many of these have been reproduced by others later, so they had a familiar look. Lots of incense burners and lamps made of highly decorated brass and silver hung from the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were ornate. It was difficult to appreciate and read and admire these things as we were constantly moving to let others in.

The complex has a library which has the world’s largest collection of ancient Christian, books, texts and codices. This is only available to monks and scholars. However, there is also a museum that has some ancient manuscripts, etc., and this is open to the public. Because of the time constraint and the many people waiting to enter, we had to bypass it which was a disappointment. We really did want to see them but you cannot have everything you want. The monastery has other buildings and little streets to visit that we also had to forego. In a very short time we had exited the building and were back on the bus.

St Catherine’s monastery would be a great visit if you could get there very early by staying in a hotel in one of the near by towns, the night before.

On our return journey we took a detour to a resort by the Red Sea for lunch. The resort was in a growing development of hotels and high end shops set in a lovely landscape. Scuba diving, windsurfing and sport fishing seemed to be the main attractions. Not a bit like Cairo. Lunch was in another posh pre-selected Cunard place. I must point out that Cunard did us very proud.

Now for the fun bit. The convoy of nine coaches was late returning to the ship. Grinding up a steep hill the coach engine began to sound a little rough. The driver turned off the air conditioning which made us think, “overheating”. It managed to reach the top and roll down the other side but we were slowly being left behind. Arriving at a security check point, it had had enough and would not start. We were about an hour away from the ship and it was going dark. The guide informed us that the ninth bus was a back up bus, empty. We were very pleased to hear that news. They had already been in contact and it would be by our side in 15 mins. True to her word the coach arrived. We made the transfer and arrived at the ship as the last tour bus.

The day ended well and although very long and a little disappointing. it was very enjoyable.