The Monastery of Saint Catherine

EGYPT
Saint Catherine Monastery - Mount Sinai 

Day 3 - 11 April 2011

CATHERINE PLAZA HOTEL -Photos

MONASTERY OF SAINT CATHERINE

On the third day we all stayed at Catherine Plaza Hotel in the middle of wilderness. Food and the lodging was extraordinary considering we stayed in the desert surrounded by literally nothing but sand. This is a great experience that everyone must have in their lifetime.

Located at the foot of Mount Moses, St. Catherine's Monastery, was constructed by order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 565. It is built around what is thought to be Moses' Burning Bush, which has a Chapel built atop it. The Chapel of the Burning Bush was originally ordered built by Empress Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, but the monastery itself was actually built by Emperor Justinian to protect the monks in the region and to honor the site of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2)

St. Catherine, whose body was reportedly carried away by angels, was discovered five hundred years later at the top of the peak that now bears her name.

Prior to probably the twentieth century, the only entrance to St. Catherine's was a small door 30 feet high, where provisions and people were lifted with a system of pulleys, and where food was often lowered to nomads.

St Catherine's Monastery

At the age of forty Moses discovered that his original people, the Hebrews, were in bondage to the Egyptians. Enraged at this cruel treatment, he killed an Egyptian overseer and fled into exile into the Sinai wilderness.

Approximately forty years later, while grazing his flocks on the side of Mt. Horeb, Moses came upon a burning bush that was, miraculously, unconsumed by its own flames. A voice speaking out of the fire (Exodus 3:1-13) commanded him to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt and return with them to the mountain.

Not very far from this monastery was a plain where Moses camped with 5000 people (Exodus 16:1), before he went to Mt Sinai to get God's Ten Commandments. 

StCATHERINE - Photos

MOUNT SINAI:



Mt Sinai where Moses Received 10 Commandments from God

 Mt. Sinai, also called Mt. Horeb and Jebel Musa (the 'Mountain of Moses') is the center of a greatly venerated pilgrimage destination that includes the Monastery of St. Catherine and the Burning Bush, Elijah's Plateau, and the Plain of ar-Raaha.

Moses twice climbed the mountain to commune with god. Regarding the second ascent, Exodus 24:16-18 states: And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day God called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. During this time on the mountain Moses received two tablets upon which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments, as well as precise dimensions for the Arc of the Covenant, a portable box-like shrine that would contain the tablets. Soon thereafter, the Arc of the Covenant was constructed and Moses and his people departed from Mt. Sinai.

NOTE: From our team, nearly 8 people climbed Mt Sinai. It was a 4 hour climbing up and 4 hour of climbing down and we had to be extremely fit to do this. Unfortunately I was very sick and missed out this opportunity to step on the place where Moses Met God. Having said this, I am planning for another trip to holy land very soon, to fulfill my unaccomplished task.
MOUNT SINAI - Photos