Group Tour Of St. Catherine Monastery And Dahab

Mount Sinai is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. And, according to belief, it was in the valley below that God spoke to him from a burning bush.

Nestled in the shadow of the sacred mountain is the Monastery of St. Catherine (Deir Sant Katreen), where communities of monks have lived almost uninterruptedly since its founding in the sixth century. Before the monastery, there was a chapel on this site, established in the fourth century AD by the Empress Helena at the place where tradition says that Moses saw the burning bush. This soon became a Place of pilgrimage, and in the sixth century, a fortified monastery was added by Emperor Justinian to protect the monks and pilgrims from raiders. It was not until much; later that the establishment was dedicated to St. Catherine. She was an early Christian saint who was Martyred in Alexandria in the fourth century.

Dahab has long been a favorite with budget travelers and the backpacker crowd, who pay just a few dollars a night for a bamboo hut on the beach. The place exists in a late-1960s time warp, where the spirit of Woodstock lives on. Most visitors are content to do little more than sprawl on throw cushions beneath the palms, dozing, reading, and letter-writing to a soundtrack of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Pink Floyd, occasionally raising themselves for a brown-rice stir-fry or pizza at one of the many small beachfront cafés.

But there is more to it than that; there is also a modern resort area, known as Dahab City, with tranquil beachside hotels and chic restaurants, and not a hint of a hippy influence. Dahab also has the requisite fine diving, with the most famous—and most dangerous—of sites being the Blue Hole, a 215-foot-deep (66 m) shaft that has been known to claim several lives in a year.