General information on Mount Sinai, where it is located, characteristics of the territory, main inhabited centers, Monastery of Santa Caterina and ten commandments received from Moses.

Where Mount Sinai is located

Mount Sinai is located in Egypt in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, a triangle-shaped peninsula in the eastern part of the state, the point of conjunction between Africa and Asia.

The territory of this Egyptian area is largely desert, inhabited along the coast of Sabah and Taba, places close to the Israeli city of Eilat.

Continuing south along the coast are Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El Sheikh.

A population settlement is also found on the north coast near the Gaza Strip in Al Arish.

In the southern part of Sinai are Mount Caterina, the highest in Egypt, and Mount Sinai where, according to the Old Testament narrative of the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, the pillar of the Christian religion.

Monastery of Santa Caterina

At the base of Mount Sinai is the Monastery of Santa Caterina, erected in the year 527 by the Roman emperor Justinian at the point where the apparition of God to Moses is believed to have occurred.

This place of worship is a destination for pilgrimages and from here starts the fastest route to climb the top of Mount Sinai called "the path of penance".

The Monastery, dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the oldest still visible, is an example of Byzantine architecture and houses many very ancient texts and icons inside.

Tables of the law

At the top of Mount Sinai there is a chapel in which, according to widespread opinion, the rock in which God made Moses sculpt the Tables of the Law bearing the Ten Commandments, whose text is found in the decalogue reported in two books of the Bible, Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Also, a short distance away, you can see the cave where Moses found shelter.