Photo : Youhana Nassif — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Sinai · Saint Catherine, Sinai
Mount Catherine
Egypt's highest summit, in the same granite massif — a long day's walking, and no steps.
South Sinai is a block of granite and porphyry torn into ridges, and Mount Catherine is its highest point: a little over 2,600 metres, higher than Mount Sinai next door. Tradition has it that angels laid the body of Catherine of Alexandria here; a small chapel stands on the summit, and from it you look out over the whole range. The climb starts from the village, goes up a wadi past the small Monastery of the Forty Martyrs with its garden and cypresses, then works up a rock gully. There are no cut steps, no tea shelters and no handrail: this is a mountain, not a stroll.
The extra bit
Arrange the guide in the village the night before, not on the morning itself, and leave before daylight: the day turns on the descent, and a late start means coming down in the heat.
Know before you go
Above 2,600 metres it freezes at night in winter, snow is not unusual, and the wind does not let up. You stock up in the village before you set off: reckon three litres of water a head, food, a jacket and decent soles. You do not go up there without someone who knows the massif — the ridges look alike and the gullies close out. The guide, the car and everything else are settled in cash in the valley.
