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Mount Sinai & St Catherine
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Mount Sinai & St Catherine

Sunrise on Mount Sinai and the Ancient Monastery

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1 dayIdeal stay₹2,420From / night₹700Food / dayFreeEntry

In the granite mountains of South Sinai, 1,600 m up: St Catherine's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox community since the 6th century and a UNESCO site, with its icons and the Burning Bush, and above it Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa, 2,285 m), climbed through the night by the Camel Path or the 3,750 Steps of Repentance for the sunrise. Local Bedouin guides are compulsory. Most come on a night trip from Dahab or Sharm; a night in the village's lodges makes it easier. Nights are near freezing from December to February.

Highlights

  • Night climb of Mount Sinai for the sunrise
  • Descent by the Steps of Repentance
  • St Catherine's Monastery and the Burning Bush
  • Icons in the monastery museum
  • Bedouin tea at the summit huts
  • Desert stars at 1,600 m

Things to do

  • Night climb of Mount Sinai for sunrise (with a Bedouin guide)Morning · 6h
  • St Catherine's Monastery and the Burning BushMorning · 2h
  • Wadi el-Arbain walk with a Bedouin guideAfternoon · 3h

Tours & tickets

Tours & tickets in Mount Sinai & St Catherinevia GetYourGuideTours & tickets in Mount Sinai & St Catherinevia Klook

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When to go

Best time: March – November

Heads up

Ramadan: Shorter Hours

Ramadan falls about February to March in 2027 (the dates move about 11 days earlier each year). Museums, sites, shops and offices keep shorter hours, many local restaurants open only after sunset, traffic jams just before the evening meal, and the evenings are lively. Tourist hotels and resorts serve food and drink as usual; eat and drink discreetly in public by day.

Worth knowing

Sinai: Where You Can Go

North Sinai is closed to visitors, and roads across Sinai have police checkpoints: carry your passport. The South Sinai resorts, Dahab and St Catherine are visited normally, but some governments' travel advice is stricter (the US State Department's has said not to travel to Sinai except to Sharm El Sheikh by air), which can affect travel insurance: check your own government's advice and your policy.

  • Ramadan — The fasting month: many cafés and restaurants outside the tourist hotels close by day, sites and offices keep shorter hours, and the streets come alive after the sunset meal (iftar), with lanterns (fanous) and late-night crowds in Islamic Cairo. Eat and drink discreetly in public by day. It falls about February to March in 2027.
  • Eid al-Fitr — Three days of holiday at the end of Ramadan: Egyptian families head for Alexandria, the Red Sea and Sinai, so beach hotels, trains and buses fill and prices rise. Banks and offices close.
  • Eid al-Adha — The feast of the sacrifice, a four-day holiday: sheep are slaughtered in the streets on the first morning, and the beaches and trains fill with Egyptian holidaymakers. About May in 2027.
  • Coptic Christmas — Egypt's Copts celebrate Christmas on 7 January with a midnight mass on the 6th; a public holiday. St Catherine's Monastery keeps the Orthodox calendar and may close to visitors on feast days.