Saint Catherine’s Monastery · Fifteen Hundred Years Below Mount Sinai

Saint Catherine’s Monastery stands below Mount Sinai. It was built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and the walls and the monastery have stood for fifteen hundred years and have never been destroyed. Inside is a collection of early manuscripts and icons second only to the Vatican’s.

In the courtyard is the site of the “burning bush”, said to be where Moses heard God. Monks still live in the monastery and haul their food up over the walls on a rope.

The sunrise on the mountain is well known. Those who climb it before dawn all say the same thing: the summit is cold in a way that does not seem like a desert.

Historical Mysteries / Sinai · Egypt / 548