Where is Mount Sinai, we asked.

In 1972, my education free site wife and I want my own eyes to see the legendary place of origin, are able to do so to avoid the pedestrian crossings on the arid desert and travel on donkeys. By purchasing a ticket for a flight of Israeli airlines "Arkia", the morning we sat in the car at the entrance to the hotel at 8:00 and departed from the airport "Ben-Gurion" in the city of Eilat, located in Eylatskom Bay. Here in the shack, which is solemnly called the "Hall of departure, we stood in the queue to the checkpoint - along with the young soldiers with machine guns" ultrasound "and a few Bedouins (member of a local nomadic tribes, worked in hotels in Eilat) - and through Gates went on to land ahead of us a small plane. "And we are on this flight?" - Asked me to surprise his wife. A few minutes later, our plane lifted into the air. 
First, our route led over a very beautiful west coast of the Gulf of Eilat along which was a new highway to the tip of the peninsula located in Sharm el-Sheikh. The plane was flying low, and we saw a small bays, golden beaches, the mountains bordering the sea, a coral island with the ruins of the castle Crusaders and Turkish fortifications. On the left, on the opposite side of the bay, seen red mountains of Saudi Arabia. Then the plane gained altitude and headed deep into the peninsula, in an effort to fly over the granite peaks, which are becoming higher pregrazhdaya our way. 
Barbate Guide forty years, turned to our group on the loudspeaker, telling about the landscape outspread below. Almost all stood up to see better. Then re-lit sign, which offers passengers, frames belts fastened, and the sharp peaks suddenly appeared completely flat floor. Landed, the plane stopped in front of the building, which was written in large letters: Mount Sinai. This is the only building was an airport (photo 36). 
A few minutes later, all except the tourists, moved to jeeps and other vehicles adapted for movement on the terrain. We plunged into zhdavshy us to the bus and began the journey to Sinai. 
Winding path - there were no roads, but only traces left by the previous bus - led us to the south. Flat plain, where the plane landed, soon gave way to mountain peaks, which competed with one another in height, shape and color, the road was getting steeper and narrower. Then the bus stopped, and we offered to go and admire the scenery. In the valley of us could see the oasis of palm trees - it was an oasis of Wadi Fira. 
A trip through the mountainous terrain was resumed, and now we are only mountains - we will not meet a single living soul. Bus poskripyval slowly probirayas on a mountain road between the rocks rolled down from the huge boulders. Then began a steep slope, and suddenly appeared before us a triangular valley. Here, amidst the mountains there were something like a medieval castle, surrounded by high walls, it was the monastery of St. Catherine. 
After a careful descent bus arrived to the walls of the monastery. In the past, you can get inside, it was the only way: you have raised in a special basket. Our way was much easier - through the gate adjacent to the monastery garden. The monk, whose responsibility is to escort the tourists, told that story here begins at the dawn of Christianity, when the first converted to Christianity Egyptians (whereas the country was under the authority of Rome) went from persecution into the desert of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. After the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the state religion, many have become the secret hiding in a monastery. Among the Christian martyrs, executed the Romans, and Saint Catherine was after the death of the angels took her body and hid in the highest peak of Sinai. Four centuries later, the place of burial opened one of the monks in a dream. So the mountain and the monastery next to it got the name. Catherine. Then we visited the cathedral, a library and a place where the relics of St. cancer. Catherine. 
Where is Mount Sinai, we asked.