Wadi Arbaein

Wadi Arbaein is the valley that runs on the south side of Mount Sinai. From here it is either possible to climb up to the camel path to go up Mount Sinai or follow a path up to Ras Safsafa. This is also one of the routes that can be taken up to Mount Katherine.

Wadi Arbaein starts from the village, behind the government offices and police station, at the Suez Canal University Environmental Research Centre. It's an easy walk with well laid paths, past orchards with mainly olive trees.

the rock of Moses

To the left stands a small chapel, the Chapel of the Prophet Moses, which is built next to a rock with 12 fissures. This rock is said to be the rock which followed and sustained the Children of Israel during the Exodus: ".... for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them....". The bedouins say that the 12 fissures represent the 12 springs referred to in the Quran when Moses struck the rock.

Convent of the 40 martyrs

Further on, surrounded by olive, cypress and poplar trees stands the Monastery of the 40 Martyrs, constructed in the 6th century to honour the 40 Christian martyrs.

In the 3rd century, 40 Christian soldiers from the Roman army were commanded to worship pagan gods. They refused so they were forced to enter the freezing waters of a lake, with icy winds blowing over it. The pagans thought they would certainly freeze to death that night, but they did not. Only one of the forty backed out and decided to go ashore where he was beheaded. When a stander-by saw this he took off his clothes and joined the 39 in the water. They all survived this bitter cold night, standing in freezing water but were afterwards killed by the pagans by the sword.

On the grounds of the monastery is also a chapel dedicated to the hermit Saint Onuphrius who came from upper Egypt and lived in a rock shelter at the northern end of the gardens for 70 years. He died in 390 AD.

Just past the monastery walls a path leads to the right to Mount Katherine. Next to this junction Ramadan lives with his family. Here he built an enclosure where he breeds rock hyraxes and observes their behaviour.

Ramadan "Hyrax"

Rock hyraxes

The rock hyrax lives in colonies in crevices and cracks in rocky, mountainous areas. They have a well structured social life. They are herbivores, feeding on the mountain vegetation, also eating some plants that are poisonous to other animals. The hyrax is related to the elephant and sea cow. In the past the bedouins believed them to be ancestors of man as their feet where shaped like human hands. They avoided eating its flesh, for whoever did so would never be able to look their parents in the eye.