Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai
View from the summit of Mount Sinai
Elevation	2,285 m (7,497 ft)
Location
Location	Saint Katherine city, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
Coordinates	28°32′23″N 33°58′24″E / 28.53972°N 33.97333°E / 28.53972; 33.97333

Mount Sinai (Arabic: طور سيناء, Ṭūr Sīnā’) (Hebrew: הר סיני, Har Sinai), also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa (Egyptian Arabic accent), Jabal Musa (standard Arabic meaning "Moses' Mountain") by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in Saint Katherine city, in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. In Arabic the words jabal and ṭūr have similar meanings, and Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Quran; for example chapter 'The Fig' (Sūrat al-Tīn) as "Ṭūr Sīnīn"[1]. According to Jewish and Christian tradition this is the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments.^[1] It is mentioned in the Bible primarily in the Book of Exodus.^[2]

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Geology 2 Monastery 3 Religious significance 4 Ascent 5 Summit 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Geography

Mount Sinai is a 2285 m-high mountain in Saint Katherine city, in Sinai region. It is next to Mount St. Catherine (at 2,629 m,^[3] the tallest peak on the Sinai peninsula).^[4] It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

[edit] Geology

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from different depths. (M. G. Shahien, Geol. Dept., Beni Suef, Egypt)

[edit] Monastery

The Monastery of St. Catherine in Saint Katherine city is sited nearby at an elevation of around 1550 m.

[edit] Religious significance

Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Abrahamic religions.

According to Bedouin tradition, this is the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. However, the earliest Christian traditions place this event at the nearby Mount Serbal, and a monastery was founded at its base in the 4th century; it was only in the 6th century that the monastery moved to the foot of Mount Catherine, following the guidance of Josephus's earlier claim that Sinai was the highest mountain in the area. Jebel Musa, which is adjacent to Mount Catherine, was only equated with Sinai, by Christians, after the 15th century.

Christian orthodoxies settled upon this mountain in the third century, Georgians moved to Sinai in the fifth century, although a Georgian colony was formed in the ninth century. Georgians erected their own temples in this area. The construction of one such temple was connected with the name of David The Builder, who contributed to the erecting of temples in Georgia and abroad as well. There were political, cultural and religious motives for locating the temple on Mount Sinai. Georgian monks living there were deeply connected with their motherland. The temple had its own plots^{[clarification needed]} in Kartli. Some of the Georgian manuscripts of Sinai remain there, but others are kept in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Prague, New York, Paris and in private collections.

Many modern biblical scholars now believe that the Israelites would have crossed the Sinai peninsula in a straight line, rather than detouring to the southern tip (assuming that they did not cross the eastern branch of the Red Sea/Reed Sea in boats or on a sandbar), and therefore look for Mount Sinai elsewhere.

The Song of Deborah, which textual scholars consider to be one of the oldest parts of the bible, suggests that Yahweh dwelt at Mount Seir, so many scholars favour a location in Nabatea (modern Arabia). Alternatively, the biblical descriptions of Sinai can be interpreted as describing a volcano, and so a small number of scholars have considered equating Sinai with locations in northwestern Saudi Arabia; there are no volcanoes in the Sinai Peninsula.

Saint Catherine Area*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Egypt
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, iv, vi
Reference	954
Region**	Arab States
Inscription history
Inscription	2002  (26th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Saint Catherine's Monastery (Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης) lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Saint Katherine city in Egypt. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60100 ha / Ref: 954) and website hereunder, this monastery has been called the oldest working Christian monastery in the world – although the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also holds claim to that title.

For Muslims, there is a chapter which mentions the mountain in the Qur’an, entitled Sūrat At-Tin, sūrah 95, in which God swears by the fig and the olive, by Mount Sinai, and by the city of Mecca. Muslims also consider the depression below Mount Sinai, known as "Tuwa", to be sacred as mentioned in the Qur'an as the "Holy Valley" (الوادي المقدس).

Several verses in the Quran mention Mount Sinai;

• Qur'an 23:20, verse 23:20, verse 2:63, verse 52:1, verse 95:2, verse 4:154, verse 28:29, verse 7:171.

In order to refer to the context of verses, see: Mount Sinai verses

[edit] Ascent

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.^[5]

[edit] Summit

The summit of the mountain has a mosque which is still prayed in by Muslims today, and a Greek Orthodox chapel (which was constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th century church) which is not open to the public. The chapel supposedly encloses the rock from which God made the Tablets of the Law.^[6] At the summit also is "Moses' cave" where Moses waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

[edit] See also

• Saint Katherine city
• Archaeology
• Mount Gerizim
• Jebel Musa, Morocco, a similarly named mountain in Morocco
• Jabal al-Lawz
• Biblical Mount Sinai

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sinai

• Mount Sinai travel guide from Wikitravel
• Information about the town of St. Katherine and the Sinai mountains
• Photo album from Mount Sinai and St Catherine's
• Contains many photos of both claimed sites, and some research.