St. Catherine and the Southern Sinai

I'm not sure how I got so far behind with this blog. It started out so well, but as usual time has flown by and I've got a lot to catch you up on. I'll probably break it into at least a couple of updates so as not to have a ridiculously long one. So where to start…

I did qualify on my third and final mission area (St. Catherine's) back in December. The southern mission is four days long as opposed to the two day northern missions. Unlike the northern missions, we only get to drive through three times before having to "pass our test." Because there isn't too damn much of anything, particularly roads or people in the middle and south of the Sinai, the actual mission and driving part is much less complicated. Unfortunately on my final run through, the Director General from Rome (a Minister Counselor Ambassador) and my boss decided that they would like to tag along. It added a whole new level of stress to what should have been a relatively easy four days, as I was paranoid about making a mistake and looking like an idiot. All in all, one wrong turn aside, it went very well and since both the DG and my boss hadn't been through this area, we saw every single touristy thing there was to region.

The first day brings you diagonally across the peninsula towards the Gulf of Suez where we spend the night in a town called Ras Sudr. Unlike the Gulf of Aqaba side (facing Jordan and Saudi Arabia), the Gulf of Suez is completely surrounded by Egypt and is relatively shallow and peppered with oil drilling platforms. Perhaps due to the fact that it's a relatively easy drive from Cairo, this area is full of beachy resorts for Egyptians. They are a far cry from what's been built for the foreigners on the other side, and four stars here is very relative. We stay at the Royal Beach Resort which is a big sprawling place on the water that looks like it was built 20 years ago and nothing has been done to since. The rooms are kind of worn, musty, and depressing, and I actually bought one of those sleeping bag liners that you can slip into because I don’t entirely trust the cleanliness of the sheets. Every time I'm there I feel like it's the perfect setting for a Hollywood slasher movie: decaying resort; no other guests; very few staff lurking around; creepy pier; empty, dark, cavernous restaurant; bizarre 70's muzak pumped into scratchy speakers everywhere; psychopathic murderer on a rampage, etc.

The next day we continue down the gulf side stopping at the various mechanized infantry, armored, and artillery units. This particular time we made our first (of many) touristy non-mission stops at a placed called the "baths of the cursed pharaoh," (from the pharaoh who chased Moses out of Egypt and perished in the Red Sea). In typical Egyptian fashion, there is no indication of where to stop, and unless you have been there before, you'd drive right by it. That being said, it's hardly a top attraction in the Sinai, but is interesting and unexpected. It's basically a geothermal vent set into the hills right next to the gulf. Apparently people have been coming here for literally thousands of years for medicinal purposes and to cook eggs in the surf. You can smell the sulfur long before you see it, the sand is pitch black, and the water actually boils as it seeps out of the ground into the gulf. There are two entrances in the sheer stone cliffs; the upper is basically a dry sauna, the lower a five level steam room. You have to almost crawl to get in the "wet" section and each level down you go, the temperature rise 5 degrees centigrade. I've never been much of a spelunker, so needless to say, I didn't make it past the first level. Thankfully we were the only people there that day because I hear the combination of sulfur and smelly older Bedouins trying to help their rheumatism can be a bit overwhelming.

From there we cut in through the mountains on our way up to St. Catherine. It is a beautiful drive from this point on as you wind your way up through the desolate and jagged mountains passing small villages and oasis with groves of date palms. Right before entering the village, we headed cross country to see the "blue desert." which is located about a25 minutes drive through the sand back into a valley. In the early 80's some Belgian artist, with permission of President Sadat, went onto this remote plateau and painted it various shades of blue (apparently the color of peace). It took ten tons of paint and was probably pretty cool at the time because he did a random paint job from small rocks five feet tall to entire sides of the mountain. Obviously 30 years on, a large amount of the paint has begun to peel off. Nevertheless, it was worth a quick stop and photo op.

The village of St. Catherine sits nestled in a valley in the shadow of Mt. Sinai. Its livelihood is completely dependent on tourists who are either escaping the beaches of Sharm El Sheikh or are serious religious pilgrims doing a bible trek. I felt more than a bit biblically challenged because my only point of reference for this area was The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. That being said, Moses came here after being exiled for killing an Egyptian overseer, saw the burning bush where God told him to get back into Egypt and save the Israelites, parted the Red Sea, wandered around for 50 days, ate some manna, walked up to Mount Sinai, got the two tablets with the ten commandments (or three according to Mel Brooks), came down the hill and saw all the Israelites dancing around a golden calf, got pissed and broke the tablets, shattered the calf, and then they wandered around for a long time (40 years total) before finally making it into the promised land.

That being said, the monastery of St. Catherine's sits 5000 feet above sea level and is the oldest in the world, founded by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in A.D. 527. It's been an Eastern Rite monastery ever since and is currently run by the Greek Orthodox Church. At its peak, it had over 500 monks, now they have a paltry 20. It's a compound containing several chapels, a basilica, library, monks quarters, etc. surrounded by a huge wall that has been built and rebuilt over the centuries (even by Napoleon Bonapart). To say the place has an interesting history is an understatement, from the Prophet Mohammed himself ensuring the safety of the monks, through the crusades, to one of the oldest copies of the bible that was "borrowed" by an Austro-Hungarian scholar to copy, gifted to Tsar Alexander II by the Hapsburg court, discovered by the Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution and sold for 100,000 pounds to the British government and now sitting in the British Museum.

Even the story of St. Catherine herself is bizarre as only Catholic saint stories can be. She was from Alexandria, pestered the Roman emperor to convert until he finally sentenced her to death on a wheel. Miraculously her bonds loosened and the wheel broke. They decided to go with the tried and true beheading, and instead of blood, milk flowed from her veins. Five centuries later a monk had a vision of angels bringing her body to the summit of now Mount Catherine where she lay until they found her intact, smelling of myrrh. The story gets a little foggy here because eventually all that was entombed in the basilica was her head and hand. Not sure where the rest of her ended up.

Anyway, we decided to get up at 3:00 a.m. to hoof it to the top of Mount Sinai (3000+ feet above the Monastery) to see the sun rise. When we started out it was quite cold, very dark, and almost impossible to find the trail of long steep switch backs. I found myself moving a bit quicker than my three cohorts, so about three-quarters of the way up broke off on my own. Closer to the top I ran into hordes of Nigerian pilgrims singing, praising Jesus, and basically blocking my progress. I was able to eventually push past them and almost crawl the last 800 feet to the top just in time for the sun to peak over the surrounding mountains. It wasn't the full-on religious experience that so many others were having, but was quite awesome to witness. Needless to say, going down was a lot more pleasant in the light, and we even lingered over tea in little Bedouin rest-stops along the way.

The journey from St. Catherine to Nuweiba on the coast is remarkable in its diversity, starting in the mountains, moving through the high plains, to rolling hills of sand, to carved sandstone formations, and then ending in an incredibly treacherous drive through the steep canyon back to sea level. Right before entering the canyon, we made our last two stops at the Nawamis and the Rock of Inscription. The Rock of Inscription or "written stone" as the locals call is a large freestanding rock with writing in Nabatean, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine carved into it, basically a big pile of really old graffiti.

Across the road and again hidden a few kilometers back in between the hills is all that remains of the Nawami (Bedouin word for "flies") civilization, a series of about 25 perfectly round stone buildings with a door facing west. This was actually one of the more impressive things I've seen over here. They are kind of hard to describe, so I've attached a photo so you can see what they look like. No one really knows anything about these people although they estimate the buildings are from about 6000 B.C. (before the pyramids were even built). Anthropologists think the buildings are tombs, but no one knows for sure. They are just sitting out there, remarkably intact, like they have for thousands of years. It is amazing to me that nothing has been done to protect this site, but then maybe the reason it is so pristine is because very few people, other than Bedouin, even know how to find it. All in all, this lonely, sun-baked, and a little eerie site captivated me as much, or even more than some of the pharonic temples.

After a beautiful drive up the coast, our last night is spent in Taba Heights, a completely artificial group of resorts (Hyatt, Intercontinental, Sofitel, Club Med, and Marriott) that are jammed between the mountains and the sea. Granted, it is a nice break from the other sub-standard hotels we normally stay at, the gardens are beautiful, there are numerous restaurants to choose from, etc., but it feels to me like I'm on a big stationary cruise ship. Besides their trips to and from the airport, the Europeans who flock to Taba Heights to bake in the sun, never actually even leave the compound or experience any real Egyptian and/or Bedouin culture. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Even though I have more to bring you up to speed on: diving in the Red Sea, floods of biblical proportion, our Nile river cruise, and as of next week, my trip to Jerusalem, it'll have to wait as I am running out of steam right now.

Hope you are all well and that those of you in the northern hemisphere are beginning to get some spring weather.

Steve