Commerce at the summit

This post is about a break from Cairo: a climb up Gebel Mousa (Mount Sinai). Gebel Mousa is purportedly the mountain that Moses climbed to receive the Ten Commandments. At its base is St. Katherine Monastery; inside, there is a bush which some say is the burning bush through which Moses mythically spoke to God.

Gebel Mousa is one of Egypt’s most popular tourist destinations. According to our guide, 700 people trek up the mountain nightly to watch the sunrise. I opted for the daytime trip, to watch the sunset, as I’m not much a fan of hiking in the middle of the night. There was not much to speak of in the way of crowds. At the summit, our group of twelve was joined by only a few others who had come up the other side.

As we began our hike at the base of the mountain, men and boys with camels followed us, offering us rides. They kept at our heels for about ten minutes before our guide, aptly named Mousa, shooed them away. Everyone in our group was determined to walk up the mountain, which, at 2,286 meters (7,500 feet) is only a few thousand meters shorter than neighboring Mt. St. Katherine, Egypt’s highest point.

After a two-hour trek, we reached the most physically demanding part of the climb: a series of 750 uneven stony steps. On our way up, we had passed several small shops, which sold water, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and candy bars. Everything at each shop cost 10 Egyptian pounds, an inflated price willingly paid by those who were cold, thirsty and hungry. I rewarded myself with a plastic cup of tea at the shops at the summit.

Our guide, Mousa, to the left, receiving a steady signal on his mobile at the summit.

The Bedouin men who work in the shops live and work at the summit of the mountain for twenty days at a time; then, a shift switch, and twenty days at home.

The view from the summit was striking, but I couldn’t help but feel that these mountains resemble huge piles of dirt, as if bulldozed from the ground in preparation for a massive construction project.

We left the summit just after sunset, with enough daylight left to safely make our way down the 750 steps. The rest of the way down the mountain, we walked slowly in the dark, sometimes slipping on the loose soil, sometimes stubbing our toes on a jutting stone. It seemed that every star was visible, and I had some difficulty not getting distracted from the significant task of watching my feet.

Mousa was a real gentleman and walked by my side, lighting the way with his cell phone. In the last half hour, he kindly carried my bag. So far, he has been the only Arabic speaker I have encountered who knew how to speak to me slowly, with simple vocabulary, so that we could happily converse completely in Arabic. We spoke about the stars, about learning language, about living with minimal material possessions. Mousa has been climbing the mountain five days a week for the last twenty-five years, and he has clearly learned to take everything in life one step at a time.

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~ by amiraha on 16 February 2010.