St. Catherine’s Monastery Day Trip from Hurghada

Tour Details:

we will meet you at your hotel in Hurghada; You will recognize our driver by the sign with your name in his hands. He will take you to the pier, and in about an hour and a half by high-speed ferry, you will find yourself in Sharm El Sheikh, where the driver and guide will already be waiting for you. This is where your tour begins.

The Monastery of St. Catherine is located at the foot  of Mount Sinai, where, according to legend, Moses received the Ten Commandments and saw a thorn bush that did not burn. The monastery is considered one of the oldest in the world, as the first mention of monasticism dates back to the 4th century AD. Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine I, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, ordered the construction of a chapel on the site of the Burning Bush in the early 4th century AD. Monastery,  in the form that has survived to this day, it was built by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD, to protect the monks. For centuries, the monastery was not attacked from the Muslim side, as it enlisted the patronage of the Prophet Muhammad.

Therefore, you will be able to see not only  the buildings, walls and decorations almost in their original form, but also countless valuables that have survived to this day and are a true historical heritage. The library, with its unique and huge collection of ancient manuscripts and manuscripts, is second only to the library in the Vatican!

In the monastery you will have a unique opportunity to see the world’ s largest collection of antique icons, which survived the times of Byzantine iconoclasm, but, however, some of the icons of the early period were destroyed. Also in the courtyard you will see a beautiful mosaic and a bush that is considered the Burning Bush.

The monastery has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2002.

Remember, it is forbidden for women to be on the territory of the monastery with their heads uncovered, their shoulders bare, their arms and legs bare.

Monks still live in St. Catherine’s Monastery, so visits are held at certain hours. The rest of the time you will spend  in Dahab, where you can have lunch at a local restaurant. Before taking the ferry back to Hurghada, you will have a short sightseeing tour of Sharm El Sheikh.

At Hurghada Port, a driver will be waiting for you to take you back to your hotel.