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Photo : Einsamer Schütze — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Sinai · South Sinai

Serabit el-Khadim

A temple of Hathor perched at 800 metres, at the end of a two-hour climb.

€€ Mid-rangeOff the beaten track

Egyptians came to mine turquoise in these mountains four thousand years ago and left a temple and engraved stelae at the summit. It is also where the first proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, ancestors of our alphabet, were found. You climb on foot with a Bedouin guide, and meet nobody.

The extra bit

Set off at dawn: the climb is steep and shadeless, and morning light reveals the carvings.

Know before you go

A Bedouin guide is effectively required: the path is unmarked and the site is far from any road.

Directions

Serabit el-Khadim massif, South Sinai

Directions

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