Sinai Diaries #2
The next morning I spotted a cross poking up from one of the hills that rose on either side of us. Almost hidden from the winding path, Klimakos is a Greek Orthodox monastery built near the site of a cave inhabited by St John for 40 years of solitary contemplation.
Nearby, St Catherine's Monastery is built on the site of the burning bush of the Old Testament and the mountain that rears up behind it was identified as Mt Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were handed to Moses. The oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world, St Catherine's is separate from the Egyptian Coptic church, and is also run and lived in by Greek Orthodox monks.
That night, our final night, we set up camp in another walled garden. As we busied ourselves with sweeping the ground with palm fronds, collecting wood for the fire and unloading our provisions from the camels, I reflected on how comforting these sounds were in the great silence of the desert that surrounded us. [end]