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Snow covers the Greek Orthodox
Monastery of St. Catherine in the
Sinai desert.
Sinai is a vital link connecting Africa and
Asia. The region was returned to Egypt from
Israeli occupation in 1982 under the Camp David
agreements. 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.
It is a spectacular natural setting for
priceless works of
art,
including Arab mosaics, Greek and Russian icons,
Western oil paintings, paintings on wax, fine
sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels,
chalices, reliquaries, including one donated by
Czar Alexander II in the 19th century, and
another by Empress Catherine of Russia in the
17th century. But of perhaps even greater
significance is that it is one of the largest
and most important collection of
illuminated manuscripts
in the world (The Vatican has the largest). The
collection consists of some 4,500 volumes in
Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic,
Syriac, Georgian and other languages. |
