Just outside of the township of St Katherine is the Monastery of St Katherine. The Monastery
lies at the mouth of the gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai at an elevation of 1550 metres. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is said by some that the St Katherine Monastery is the oldest working Christian monastery in the world. This is in the Biblical land of Midian.
Some of the things that are said to have occurred here. The first is they say that Moses met his wife Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. (Exodus 2:15-22).
One of the claims to fame of this location is the Monastery is the site of the Burning Bush as described in Exodus 3 which reads
“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.”
We were able to take a photo of the Site of the Burning Bush which has a circular stone structure totally surrounding it – I felt it was a little ironic that there was a fire extinguisher placed right along side the place where God appear to Moses in a burning bush, but did not consume the bush!!
The Monastery had a few other things to see plus a place to sit and have a Coffee!
For more information about Mt Sinai
[catlkist name=”Mt Sinai”]