The High Sinai

Mount Sinai and St. Catherine’s Monastery If you didn’t know its history, you’d probably call this remote, bone-dry mountain region God-forsaken. But for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Mt. Sinai is anything but-this is the site of God’s great revelation to Moses.

Mt. Sinai (Gabal Mussa) is regarded as the mountain where, according to Exodus, Moses ascended, parleyed with God, and returned with the Ten Commandments. Tliis place is a bargain for spiritually needy tourists: you can pump water from the well where Moses met his wife and go barefoot where Moses encountered the bum-ing bush (a shapeless weed overgrowing its stone and chicken-wire shrine) for free. The monastery’s private library cloisters the oldest (5th century) translation of the Gospels and, with its collection of over 3000 ancient manuscripts and 5000 books, is a perfect setting for The Name of the Rose.

Attracted by the tradition that named the valley below as the site of the burning bush (and looking for a place to lay low during times of persecution), Christian hermits began inhabiting caves in the vicinity as early as the 2nd century AD. St. Catherine’s monastery began as part of their rudimentary communal life in a small chapel built by Helena, the converted mother of Emperor Constantine. In 342 AD, Justinian ordered the construction of a splendid basilica on the top of Mt. Sinai. When Stephanos, Justinian’s trusted architect, found the mountain’s peak too narrow, he built the Church of the Transformation next to St. Helen’s chapel instead. Justinian, peeved, ordered Stephanos’s execution, but the pragmatic builder instead lived out his days in the safety of the monastery and eventually achieved sainthood; his bones are on display in the ossuary. Pilgrims of all persuasions frequent Mt. Sinai throughout the year.