Mt. Sinai (Jebel Musa) and the Safsafa basins - Discover Sinai

around the top end of the garden. To the west a long steep gully leadsup to a narrow saddle between two peaks. From the saddle there is adramatic view on the plain of Wadi Raha. Getting to the peaks mightlook a bit scary as from the saddle you have to climb up steep smoothsurfaces above sheer drops. From the north peak you could comedown a different way and enter a gully below the garden. From thisgully you could get the same view as from the look-out point marked onthe map – the two gullies actually join further below and both are part ofWadi Shaby. To get back to the main path there are two ways: youcould either go back to the garden in Farsh Safsafa and climb over asmall hill at the corner of the garden, or take a little wadi connecting thetwo gullies and reach the paved path at the sharp turn.The garden in Farsh Safsafa is not cultivated any more, still, it is a verygood example of the Byzantine gardening and water managementpractices. As almost always the case, the garden is located in thewater’s course, protected from the occasional floods by a massive wallthat lets some water in at certain places and channels it to reservoirs,trees and a well. Excess water is let out at the bottom of the garden.The dry stone wall has to be very strong as even in a short outburst ofrain, with water gathering from a large surface area of naked granite,will finally run through a single basin or wadi with an enormous force.The main purposes of the wall is to retain the soil – thus called retainingwall – and to protect the garden from massive rocks coming with thefloods. Buildings are always found at elevated points, within the gardenor outside. Wells can also be found inside or outside, either dug in thewadi floor or in porous rock upstream from the garden. There wereoften water tanks built next to the wells, connected to stone channelsdelivering the water where it was needed. In the past shadoofs wereused to pull the water up, a wooden triangle with a pole attached to it.There is a wide variety of fruits grown in the region, many that cannotbe found anywhere else in Egypt. A few things have changed – plasticpipes and diesel pumps got introduced – but in essence the traditions,and the seeds, originally brought by the monks live on in the hundredsof Bedouin gardens found in the high mountains.21