St Katherine’s Monastery

Today, we have the morning to explore St Katherine’s before moving on to Sharm el Sheikh.  After breakfast, around 0915 we took a taxi from our accommodation to the monastery slightly out of town.

At our accomodation, Daniela Village.

Lucky for us, with our elderly, that we were in a taxi as we could go all the way to the monastery.  Those in tour buses have to walk up.

The surrounding walls of St Katherine’s were constructed in the 6^th Century during Roman times.  Exploring within these walls, we first visited the Well of Moses, where he met his future wife.  The well also has a few other points of significance in the Bible, but it still remains as one of the main sources of water for the monastery.

Next, we visited the church.  This was officially called the Great Basilica of the Transfiguration, built in 542AD.  In Orthodox fashion, the altar is not visible but there is an icon-decorated partition.  There were also many chandeliers and incense burners coming down from the high ceiling.  And of course, there were no seats.

We continued to the icon museum where about half the world’s Byzantine icons are housed.

Back outdoors, we saw the bell tower which was built in 1871 on foundations from the original 6^th Century construction, apparently with a tower in mind.  We also saw the Burning Bush, which in the Bible burnt without being consumed.

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Outside of the monastery walls, there were small gardens and a cemetery.  We visited the charnel house amongst that, which kept skeletons of dead monks.

There were many Ethiopians visiting St Katherine’s.  Some had draw lines across their foreheads.  The monks here are largely from Greece but there are two from Europe and the USA.  Sometimes they have monks from Syria, Palestine and Egypt.