Steps of Repentance and Elijah's Hollow

In the Bible

Elijah walked forty days to Horeb, the mountain of God, and spent the night in a cave; after the wind, the earthquake and the fire came a still, small voice.

1 Kgs 19:8–9So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There Elijah entered a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kgs 19:11–13Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Tradition

By tradition, the monks' path of some 3,750 steps was laid by a monk as penance; in a hollow below the summit, a chapel of Elijah marks the cave where he spent the night.

Here today

The steep stone stairway from the monastery meets the gentler camel path at Elijah's Hollow, a basin with an old cypress below the last steps.

Through the eyes of old pilgrims

These mountains are ascended with infinite labour, because you do not go up gradually by a spiral path (as we say, 'like a snail shell'), but you go straight up as if up the face of a wallEgeria, c. 381–384

This is that Horeb where was the holy prophet Elijah when he fled from the face of King Ahab … For the cave where holy Elijah hid is shown to this day before the door of the church which is thereEgeria, c. 381–384

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Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).