Mount Sinai - Moses' Mountain - The Mountain of the 10 Commandments [Top Travel Destinations]

the Sinai Peninsula joining the continents of Africa and Asia has played an unsurpassed role in human history it's well known that many peoples and cultures have passed across it in both directions bringing with them different cultures and different ways of viewing life Moses and Christ traveled across it humbly radically changing the views of those who followed and as a result monasteries and churches were built at certain isolated places the Arab leader ma iban al-as led the Muslim Army to Egypt and from there Islam spread to the rest of [Music] Africa there are only a few places in the world where as a firsttime visitor your conf fronted with such a mountainscape as that of the Sinai in the snaking W eyes of the South and the looming crafted vistas of the Interior the landscape is both visually overpowering and peaceful as if nature in enacting its script has become Frozen in [Music] stone the region was formed as a result of tectonic plate movement the African Arabian and Mediterranean Shields pulling away from each other creating a great gash in the land at the same time the outward movement pushed against existing Rock layers forming the looming Sinai mountains the effect was extensive extending from what's now the Jordan River Valley South then Southeast turning at Djibouti into Kenya thus becoming known as the Great Rift Valley [Music] the more pastel colored granates are much older than the reddish Rock these dkes which are fine grained Baltic intrusions having pushed their way into the original coar grained plutonic granates created stunning effects of color and form to this is added the effects of sandstone weathering and coloring through leeched minerals in some places a whole Hillside is layered in all colors red purple green cream white and orange in many places the evidence of past geological activity is obvious with tilted layers sitting on the underlying Granite Base Rock most of the nominated area and also of the protectorate is inhospitable mountainous desert there's a population of more than 10,000 within the protectorate located in over 50 bedwin settlements and the small town of St Catherine some of the bedwin tribes are nomadic and others such as the jebbia live in permanent settlements the bedwin the original Arabs are the arabic speaking Nomads of the Middle East who proudly maintained their pastoral way of life over thousands of years and the vision of the family their camels and their herds of goats are firmly planted in our mins they now live in the desert regions of all countries between the Arabian Gulf and the Atlantic every day hundreds of pilgrims are brought here for the traditional Sunrise climb the final steps of the stairway of repentance to arrive at the top reach 2,285 m above sea level and the lofty Summit of Mount Si the view from here has been likened to an ocean of petrified waves sometimes it's possible to see the hazy Blues of the Gulfs of Suz and aquaba from this point the northern and Eastern boundaries of the jebala territory are demarcated by the dark volcanic circular Dyke and the peaks of Jebel um [Music] alawi in the judeo-christian region of the Middle East there are four primary sacred mountains Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey the traditional Landing place of Noah's Ark mount siai in the Sinai Peninsula the peak where Moses received the Ten Commandments Mount Moriah or Mount Zion in Israel where the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon lie and Mount Tabor in Israel the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus Mount Si also called Mount Horeb and Jebel muza the mountain of Moses is the center of a greatly venerated pilgrimage destination that includes the monastery of St Catherine and the burning bush Elijah's plateau and the plan of AR Raha Mount Si is identified by Muslims as Mount Moses and for them as for Christians this is the place where God made a covenant with his people handing down the tablets of the law to [Music] Moses Christians and Muslims have long regarded this Summit as the sacred Mount Si although Jewish tradition is more guarded in ascribing an earthy location to Mount Si in early Christian times it was only the pi who walked up the mountain in barefooted reverence who were permitted to visit the summit pilgrims rarely slept here and to this day the bedwin respect the Holy Mountain by leaving with their flocks Before Sunset pilgrims Travelers and visitors have been attracted to the religious landscape of Mount Si for centuries the pilgrimage is linked to the story of [Music] Moses Moses was discovered as a baby in a papus basket floating amongst rushes at the edge of the Nile the Pharaoh at the time had commanded that all newborn Jewish boys be thrown into the Nile but his daughter found the baby rescued him and brought him up in the pharaoh's Court naming him Moses as a Young Man Moses was sentenced to death for a assaulting and killing an Egyptian Foreman who' beaten up an Israelite laborer and to escape execution he fled to the Sinai [Music] mountains there are three General categories of rocks sedimentary Ignus and metamorphic and these are further subdivided according to their textures and constituent minerals sediment mud Sand and Gravel deposited on Ocean Floors and land surfaces are hardened into sedimentary rocks through a variety of lithification processes including compaction cementation and recrystallization Continental sediments are derived from weathered and eroded pre-existing rocks and are deposited mainly by Rivers but also occasionally by wind glaciers and other processes vast harsh empty spaces bounded on all sides by huge formations of rock offer an everchanging Vista of [Music] color despite its remoteness Sinai has always attracted Travelers and explorers who wrote its history on the land itself it's a region rich in Precious Minerals such as copper Malachite and turquoise found at w magara and S El kadim as well as the more recently discovered oil in the Gulf of sez archaeological investigations have shown that migrating peoples crossed the harsh passageways of Sinai between Africa and Asia during many of the prehistoric periods military Expeditions during fonic times left their Mark in the rock art which can be seen in many areas of the peninsula and the biblical story of The Exodus has bequeathed a rich source of tradition in which siai is a holy Place few places on Earth capture the imagination of both young and old the way Egypt does with its parched desert landscape dissected by its one Eternal [Music] River despite its hostile environment and harsh climate the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula has attracted human occupation for many millennia the remains of the simple dwellings of the ancient inhabitants known to history as the amalekites date from the early Bronze Age but earlier settlements of late Mesolithic or early Neolithic date have also been found aesthetic monasticism in remote areas prevailed in the early Christian church and resulted in the establishment of monastic communities in remote places St Katherine's monastery is one of the earliest of these and the oldest to have survived intact being used for its initial function without interruption since the 6th Century it demonstrates an intimate relationship between natural Grandeur and spiritual commitment [Music] [Music] Southern Sinai is particularly rich in religious monuments which are highly venerated by followers of the three monotheistic religions the most prominent of these is the monastery of St Catherine founded in the 5th Century ad together with its satellite monuments all this gives the region a special importance as a cultural heritage site of international value with the destruction of Petra by the Romans nean influence waned and the survivors became Nomads the Sinai region known to the Romans as Palestina teria became a Savage Wilderness and as such attracted early Christian anchorites following the departure of the Romans in the second half of the 4th Century the general lawlessness eventually drove the monastic communities to seek help this was supplied by the Byzantine emperor Justinian the who sent teams of Architects and Masons to build a fort below the rocky Eminence identified by the monks as Mount Si the neoclassical Bell Tower is the work of one of the monks Gregorius and was built in 1871 it houses nine Bells presented by the Zar of Russia the complex also contains some exceptional examples of Byzantine art and houses outstanding collections of manuscripts and icons its location demonstrates a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other after 8,000 years at the heart of History experience the continuing contrast Sinai is where Rock meets coral reef and the desert stops at the sea it's the grander of granite meeting golden [Music] beaches the West Coast reaching from Ras Muhammad to taba is filled with Rich coral reef sections one after another with its extraordinary beauty it's one of the or for some even the most interesting site in Sinai this first and only Egyptian National Park was declared in 1983 with an area of 97 km Square since then it's been extended to 480 km square and includes marine and terrestrial areas the park is surrounded by magnificent coral reefs that are famous in the whole world for their unique beauty these corals are part of an ele at promary that emerged after a change in the coastline some 70,000 years ago from the extreme part of the Sinai Peninsula visitors see the entire Panorama of the Sinai mountains [Music]