The Monastery of St Catherine St. Katherine's Monastery is nestled tightly between two mountains, one of which is Mt. Sinai. The Monastery is the oldest in continuous use in the world, built around the Burning Bush of Moses. The Burning Bush still lives with its walls, in a raised brick planter. St. Katherine's also contains the oldest religious Icons in the world, protected during the Iconclasty by its remote location in the southern center of the Sinai Peninsula. The Icon and Bible collection in the Monastery's museum is beautiful as well as unique. The sanctuary contains bone relics of St. Katherine. Beside the church sits a Fatimid mosque, erected to help protect the Monastery at the direction of Prophet Mohammed. 46 Greek Orthodox monks live in and maintain the Monastery but it also enjoys a unique relationship with the Jebeliya Bedouin tribe who live in a very small village nearby. Men visiting the grounds may stay in one of 16 rooms inside the walls while women can stay in a guest house outside the walls. [edit text]  [editors]

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