According to tradition, Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa, the Mountain of Moses) is the Biblical Mount Horeb, where Moses spent 40 days and received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24). Two paths climb to the 2,286-m (7,500-ft) summit from behind the monastery, both requiring three hours’ walking. The route said to have been taken by Moses is the most tiring as it consists of 3,700 rock steps called the Steps of Repentance. There are several votive sites along the way.

A cypress-shaded plain, 700 steps below the summit, is the so-called Amphitheatre of the Seventy Elders of Israel, where those who accompanied Moses stopped, leaving him to go to the top alone. It is also called Elijah’s Hollow, as Elijah is said to have heard the voice of God here. It contains St Stephen’s Chapel  and is where people spending the night on the mountain are asked to sleep. This is also where the second, longer but easier, path joins the first. Camels can be hired to this point, but the final 700 steps have to be done on foot.

On the summit is the small Chapel of the Holy Trinity  (often closed). It was built in 1934 on the ruins of a 4th–5th-century church and is said to be where God spoke to Moses from a fiery cloud. Nearby is a small, 12th-century mosque and the cave where Moses spent the 40 days. The summit offers grandiose views, but is often crowded. If you join the many who go up to see the sunrise or sunset, take a flashlight and warm clothes.

The mountain lies at the heart of the St Catherine Protectorate, a conservation area recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site. The area is ideal for trekking. One of the longer hikes is to the top of Mount Catherine (Gebel Katarina), Egypt’s highest peak. Angels supposedly transported St Catherine of Alexandria’s body here, away from her torturers’ wheel. Hikers can pick up informative booklets to trails in the area at the Protectorate Office in the village of El-Milga, 3.5 km from St Catherine’s Monastery. All treks must be done with a Bedouin guide, which is also arranged through the office.