Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai, a peak in a rocky mass that almost fills the Sinai Peninsula, north-eastern Egypt, between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba. Mount Sinai is the mountain on which, according to the Old Testament (see Exodus 19), the Hebrew Prophet and lawgiver Moses received from Jehovah the tables of the Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue. In other passages of the Bible, it is sometimes called Horeb. In this mountain mass three separate mountains are clearly distinguishable. Authorities are divided on the identification of the Sinai of Moses. The mountain known as Jabal Katrinah has two well-marked peaks, the northern one now called Horeb and the southern, Jabal Musa (Arabic, “Mountain of Moses”). The latter summit is traditionally considered the sacred site of the Hebrew lawgiving. Sinai was regarded as a sacred mountain from ancient times (see Deuteronomy 33:2; Judges 5:5); it became an early centre of Christian monasticism with the establishment of the Monastery of St Catherine by the Roman Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century. The monastery was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.