Mount Sinai Sunrise & St Catherine's Monastery

Mount Sinai — Jebel Musa to the Bedouin — rises from the granite heart of southern Sinai. Pilgrims and travellers have climbed it in the dark for centuries to reach the summit for sunrise, and this trip follows that tradition. We pick you up in Dahab around 23:00 and drive into the mountains to St Catherine, where your Bedouin guide is waiting with a torch and a steady pace.

The climb takes about two and a half to three hours on the wide camel path, with simple tea stops on the way; camels can carry you for part of the route at extra cost. The last stretch is on foot only: the final 750 rough stone steps of the Steps of Repentance to the summit. At the top, wrapped in a blanket, you watch the sky turn from black to violet to gold over a sea of jagged ridges.

After descending in daylight, you visit St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of the mountain, one of the oldest working monasteries in the world, when it is open to visitors. You're back in Dahab around midday. The hike is of moderate difficulty: not technical, but long, steep in places and cold at the top.