EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). For many days now, the focus of many in Greece and the Diaspora has been centered on St. Catherine’s of Mt. Sinai. Yet we have failed to mention one of Sinai’s most important visitors in the last 100 years… Nikos Kazantzakis’s journey to Sinai in 1927 formed a profoundly spiritual and reflective episode in his broader travels through the Middle East, later documented in his book Journeying: Travels in Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, and Cyprus. This voyage was not merely a tourist attraction—it was an existential pilgrimage that merged landscape, myth, and personal revelation.
BELOW WE ATTEMPT TO NARRATE THIS JOURNEY WITH THE HELP OF A.I., USING, IN THE END, KAZANTZAKIS’ OWN WORDS…
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The Journey to Sinai: A Spiritual Pilgrimage
Kazantzakis arrived in Egypt in the late 1920s, part of a broader cultural and philosophical quest that took him across the Mediterranean and the Middle East. From Cairo, he traveled into the stark wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula—a region steeped in biblical history and sacred symbolism. The desert was not a place of desolation for him; it was a theater of the divine, a realm where human and cosmic forces collided in raw, symbolic clarity.
Encounter with the Desert Landscape
As he ventured into the heart of Sinai, Kazantzakis was struck by its dramatic, primeval landscape. The desert appeared to him as the dwelling place of ancient gods and prophets, especially of the Old Testament tradition. He saw the arid gorges and towering rocks as a natural cathedral—untamed, ascetic, and deeply awe-inspiring. In his words:
“This arid, treeless, inhuman ravine we were traversing had been Jehovah’s fearsome sheath. Through here He had passed, bellowing.”
This vivid language reflects how he perceived the desert as a sacred void, simultaneously terrifying and sublime. The lack of vegetation, the silence, and the searing heat became metaphors for the human soul’s struggle toward enlightenment or transcendence.
Visit to St. Catherine’s Monastery
One of the focal points of Kazantzakis’s trip was his visit to St. Catherine’s Monastery, one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries, situated at the foot of Mount Sinai. The monastery, with its ancient icons, manuscripts, and austere monks, represented to Kazantzakis a living continuity of the ascetic ideal—a lineage of those who had renounced worldly pleasures in pursuit of the divine.
Inside the monastery walls, Kazantzakis meditated on the lives of saints and hermits who had passed through or lived in these deserts. He was fascinated by their discipline, their solitude, and their dialogue with silence and the ultimate reality of death. Yet he didn’t merely idealize their withdrawal; he used their lives as a mirror for his restless quest.
Climbing Mount Sinai
Climbing Mount Sinai itself was a pivotal moment. Here, according to the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments. For Kazantzakis, ascending the mountain was not simply retracing a religious story—it was a symbolic confrontation with the divine. The mountain’s height, silence, and starkness became instruments of inner clarity. It was a place where human ego was stripped bare, and where the soul could either ascend toward God or dissolve into dust.
Philosophical Reflections
Throughout the journey, Kazantzakis blends Christian mysticism, Greek existentialism, and Eastern spiritual motifs. Sinai, to him, is not a place that belongs to any one religion—it is a cosmic testing ground for the soul. His descriptions are charged with metaphysical energy: Jehovah is not just a figure from scripture but a metaphor for overwhelming, indifferent divinity. The desert becomes a dialogue partner in his inner struggle with God, faith, meaning, and mortality.
Legacy of the Journey
Kazantzakis’s visit to Sinai left a deep imprint on his later writing, including The Saviors of God and Report to Greco. It was part of his lifelong search for a faith that transcended dogma and a God who was not only a creator but also a challenge. The Sinai journey is emblematic of his worldview, where beauty is harsh, truth is complicated, and divinity is often hidden in desolation.
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Below are several evocative excerpts from Nikos Kazantzakis’s writings that capture his profound experiences during his journey through the Sinai desert:
1. The Ravine of Jehovah
In Report to Greco, Kazantzakis describes a vivid, almost hallucinatory experience as he traverses a desolate ravine:
“Terror-stricken, I began to run again. The mountains whirled and I whirled with them… I had entered the sinuous, terrifying ravine which the Hebrews, with Jehovah in the lead, had taken thousands of years earlier in their flight from the rich, prosperous land of Pharaoh.”
He perceives the landscape as a crucible where the Israelites were forged into a resilient people, enduring hunger and hardship under the watchful eye of a formidable deity.
2. The Summit of Sinai
Kazantzakis recounts an intense, dream-like ascent to the summit of Mount Sinai:
“A whirlwind wrapped me round, fierce wings lifted me, and I suddenly found myself at the summit of God-trodden Sinai… Never had my eyes, never my entrails, enjoyed a sight so cruelly inhuman and so completely in harmony with my heart—waterless, treeless, without a human being, without hope.”
This barren, unforgiving landscape resonates deeply with his inner turmoil and quest for meaning.
3. The Gentle Breeze of Divinity
Reflecting on the nature of divine revelation, Kazantzakis writes:
“Tomorrow, go forth and stand before the Lord. A great and strong wind will blow over you… but the Lord will not be in the wind… And after the fire a gentle, cooling breeze. That is where he Lord will be…”
He suggests that true spiritual insight comes not through cataclysmic events but through subtle, calming experiences.
4. The Desert as a Forge of Faith
In his observations, Kazantzakis considers the desert’s role in shaping the character of the Hebrew people:
“How can anyone have a true sense of the Hebrew race without crossing this terrifying desert, without experiencing it? For three interminable days we crossed it on our camels… To this desert the Jews owe their continued survival and the fact that by means of their virtues and vices they dominate the world.”
He views the harshness of the desert as instrumental in cultivating resilience and a profound connection with the divine.
These passages illustrate Kazantzakis’s profound connection to the Sinai landscape, portraying it as a site of spiritual testing and revelation. If you’re interested in exploring more of his reflections, Report to Greco and Journeying: Travels in Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, and Cyprus offer comprehensive accounts of his experiences.
A powerful intellect and amazing journey to Sinai for Kazantzakis. One of his most important traits is he was fearless. But may I add this. Contrary to what Kazantzakis writes, Egypt was no longer prosperous when the Israelites escaped from centuries of slavery. The Holy Scriptures are clear that God had inflicted punishments on Egypt for its sins. There was widespread devastation and suffering. The plagues included infestations, diseases, hail, and ultimately, the death of the firstborn, which deeply impacted the Egyptian people and their economy. Then were the Israelites commanded to depart.