Whichever peak is the real Sinai, pilgrims from three traditions have been climbing one of the candidates for well over a thousand years.
Two routes up
The mountain most commonly identified as Sinai today, Jebel Musa, is climbed by two main paths: the Steps of Repentance, some three thousand rough-cut stone steps laid by monks, and a longer, gentler camel path favoured by most modern visitors. Both converge near the summit, where a small chapel and a mosque stand close together, and many pilgrims time the climb to reach the top before sunrise.
Reverence across three traditions
Jewish tradition holds the mountain as the site of the giving of the Law to Moses. Christian monasticism grew up at its base from the fourth century onward, drawn by the same association, producing the community that became Saint Catherine's Monastery. Islamic tradition also recognises the mountain, referred to in the Quran as Tur Sinai, and Bedouin communities in the area, some of whom trace religious ties to the mountain through the Jabaliya tribe long associated with the monastery's protection, continue to guide and provision pilgrims today.
A shared summit, not a settled one
Scholars have proposed several other peaks in the Sinai Peninsula and even sites outside it as the biblical mountain, and the identification of Jebel Musa itself dates mainly to Byzantine tradition rather than to continuous evidence, so the mountain pilgrims climb is a matter of inherited consensus rather than proof.