According to Etheria the Israelites waited in this plain when Moses went up into the Mount of God—there was also the place where the calf was made—it was the valley at the head of which was the place where holy Moses was when he fed the flocks of his father-in-law when God spoke to him from the Burning Bush. But as their route was first to ascend the Mount of God at the side from which they were approaching because the ascent was easier, and then to descend to the head of the valley where the Bush was, thence retracing their steps so as to see the places mentioned in Scripture, they spent the night at a certain monastery where kindly monks dwelt and where they were all well received. There was a church there and a priest (this place has not been identified). It was the night preceding the Sabbath, and early on the following morning they made the ascent of the mountains one by one with the priests and the monks that lived there. “And you must go straight down each mountain until you arrive at the foot of the central one, which is strictly called Sinai. And so, Christ our God commanding us, and encouraged by the prayers of the holy men who accompanied us, although the labour was great, for I had to ascend on foot because the ascent could not be made in a chair (_sella_), yet I did not feel it.” At the fourth hour they reached the peak of Sinai where the Law was given, the place where the majesty of God descended on the day when the mountain smoked, and then they found a church, small because the summit of the mount where it stood was small, but with a large measure of grace. They were joined by the priest of the monastery who served the church, for no one permanently lived on the mountain where was the cave and the church where holy Moses was (c. 33). Passages were read of the book of Moses, the party communicated and received a present of first fruits (_pomis_) from the monks, and Etheria asked questions about the various sites, including the cave where Moses was when he ascended the mountain a second time to receive the tables and “other sites, both those which we asked to see, and those about which they themselves knew. But this I would have you know, ladies, venerable sisters, that the mountains which we had at first ascended without difficulty, were as hillocks compared with the central one on which we were standing. And yet they were so enormous that I thought I had never seen higher, did not this central one overtop them by so much. Egypt and Palestine, the Red Sea and the Parthenian (_i.e._ Mediterranean) Sea, which leads to Alexandria, also the boundless territories of the Saracens, we saw below us, hard though it is to believe; all which things these holy men pointed out to us” (c. 34). As a matter of fact, the Red Sea is not visible from the Gebel Musa, but from the Gebel Katrîn. Etheria’s mention of a church on the height, however, shows it was the Gebel Musa she ascended.