St Catherine’s Monastery

Nestling in a valley at the foot of Mount Sinai, St Catherine’s Monastery is built on the site where Moses is said to have heard the voice of the Lord speaking from a burning bush. It has been a famous site for pilgrimage for more than fifteen centuries. It is also one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world, dating back to 337AD, and is filled with priceless art and historic treasures.

The Basilica: erected by the Emperor Justinian between 542 and 551, the Basilica, also known as the Church of the Transfiguration, has been carefully preserved through the ages. The famous Mosaic of the Transfiguration, also dating from the sixth century, is in near perfect condition.

Moses’s Well: Moses, a fugitive from Egypt, met Zipporah, one of Jethro’s seven daughters at the well. He later married her, aged 40.

Monastery Museum: the museum contains a fascinating array of Byzantine icons, crosses, chalices, and ancient manuscripts and books, including fragments of the world’s oldest Bible. The Monastery Library, usually closed to laypersons, preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican.

The Cemetery: the cemetery itself is so small that monks’ skeletons are usually disinterred after a year and moved to the charnel house, which is sometimes open to visitors.