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

cutting, but you should carry on straight passing a cafeteria on yourright. A flight of steep steps begins here, all the way to the summit ofMt. Sinai (Jebel Musa) (13). There are more cafeterias shortly beforethe top. On the summit itself there are a church and mosque standingside by side, and terraces from which you have far reaching panoramicviews of the mountains and desert. If you start descending as soon asthe sun goes down you will have enough time to reach the Monasteryor Wadi Arbain before total darkness sets in. Descend to thecutting (12) but this time take the path that goes through it, and youwill be on the Camel Path. After a short walk you will reach ajunction (14) at a cafeteria: to the left is the way to the Monastery, tothe right is the path back to Wadi Arbain. If you want to head back totown, it is better to go to the Monastery where you can probably get ataxi. As an alternative, you could sleep on Mt. Sinai or stay for the nightat Ramadan’s Garden (see map 1.1), especially if the following day youcontinue your trek to Mt. Katherine.If you want to see the sunrise as well as the sunset, you could sleep onMt. Sinai, there are a few options. You could stay in any of thecafeterias along the way, they wouldn’t charge for it, but you wouldhave to pay for things you buy or for ‘renting’ a blanket if you need one.Or, if the weather is warm, you could just put down your sleeping backat the top next to the church and sleep there. Either case, expect to bewoken up early in the morning when visitors start to arrive in thehundreds. It is an interesting crowd: western gospel groups re-enactingBiblical events, Russian pilgrims in conservative dress in sharp contrastto Russian girls in miniskirts, big groups of Korean Christians, Nigerianpilgrims performing strange rituals and all that, mixing with foreign andEgyptian tourists. A quieter option is to stay in a little cave, just a fewsteps from the top, made comfortable and run by Salah Abu Ghalaba.Another quiet place is Elijah’s Basin, where there is a simple but nicecampsite in the walled court. However, it has to be booked in advancein town with Mahmoud Mansour. If you’re not that worried about thesunrise, staying in Ramadan’s Garden in Wadi Arbain is a nice choice:it is a typical Bedouin garden with a big Bedouin tent – beit el shaar –and a number of stone rooms. Ramadan breeds rock hyraxes and if inthe mood plays his harp-like simsimiya.24