Saint Catherine is a town in the South Sinai Governorate of Egypt. It is located at the base of Mount Sinai and is home to Saint Catherine's Monastery. The town is 1,586 meters above sea level and is 120 kilometers from Nuweiba. In 1994, the population was 4,603 people. In 2002, the Saint Catherine area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

During Egypt’s Pharaonic Era (3200–323 BCE), even though Saint Catherine was not yet a city, the area was part of the Egyptian Empire in the province called "Deshret Reithu."

In the 16th century BCE, Egyptian pharaohs built a road called the Way of Shur across the Sinai Peninsula to Beersheba and then to Jerusalem. The region supplied the Egyptian Empire with turquoise, gold, and copper. Ruins that are still in good condition, including mines and temples, are found near Saint Catherine at Serabit el-Khadim and Wadi Mukattab, the Valley of Inscription. These ruins include temples from the 12th Dynasty, dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of love, music, and beauty, and temples from the New Kingdom, dedicated to Sopdu, the god of the Eastern Desert.

Saint Catherine’s City was established between 527 and 565 CE when Saint Catherine’s Monastery was built at the foot of Mount Sinai, as ordered by Emperor Justinian.

Modern township and tourist attractions

Today, Saint Catherine City is organized as a township. It has a high school, a hospital, a police and fire department, hotels, a post office, a telephone center, and a bank.

The township's oldest settlement was in Wadi El Sybaiya, east of the city's monastery, where descendants of Roman soldiers, the Jebeliya, lived. It began to grow into a town after a paved road was built in the 1980s and tourism increased. Many nomadic Bedouins moved to small settlements near the city's monastery, which together form Saint Catherine Town. The districts of El Milga, Shamiya, Raha, and Nabi Harun make up the main part of the town, located at the end of the paved road where the valleys of Wadi El Arbain (Wadi El Lega), Wadi Quez, Wadi Raha, Wadi Shrayj, and Wadi El Dier connect to the main valley, Wadi Sheikh. There are older settlements in Wadi Sheikh and smaller ones in other valleys. Saint Catherine is the capital of the Municipality of Saint Katherine, which includes these outlying areas.

Geography

The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system labels the climate as desert (BWh). Saint Catherine has the coldest nights of any city in Egypt, and its air contains very little moisture. High mountain ranges in Egypt surround the town, with many smaller valleys connecting the basin to the mountains in all directions. Saint Catherine is located at an elevation of 1,600 meters (about 5,200 feet). The town’s high altitude and surrounding mountains create a comfortable climate with mild summer nights and cooler winter days. On rare occasions, nighttime temperatures can drop significantly, requiring heating in buildings and public spaces. Saint Catherine is among the coldest towns in Egypt, along with Nekhel and other areas in mountainous Sinai. Snow falls in Saint Catherine during December, January, and February, though it has also been recorded in late autumn and early spring.

Saint Catherine Town is located at the base of the Sinai high mountain region, known as the "Roof of Egypt," where Egypt’s tallest mountains are found.

The town relies on groundwater from the mountains for water. As of September 28, 2011, water from the Nile is delivered to Saint Catherine through a pipeline, funded by the European Union.

Saint Catherine and nearby towns are part of the Saint Katherine Protectorate, established in 1988. This area has a unique high-altitude ecosystem with many species found only there, including the world’s smallest butterfly (the Sinai baton blue butterfly), groups of Nubian ibex, and hundreds of plant species with medicinal value. The region is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some species are at risk of disappearing.

Animals such as Sinai agamas, rock hyraxes, and foxes live in the area. Foxes are harmless to people and often visit the town at night to search for food. Rock hyraxes are frequently seen in gardens and have migrated from Europe. Feral donkeys in the mountains move to lower areas, such as El Tur, during winter and return to graze in summer. Many of these donkeys are part of family groups and have markings. The Saint Katherine City Council is working to reduce their population.

A major goal of the Protectorate is to protect the region’s biodiversity, especially the Nubian ibex and wild plants with medicinal and aromatic properties. The St. Katherine Protectorate provides jobs in the area, though fewer local Bedouins have been employed since European Union support ended.

Snow is an important water source because it melts slowly, releasing water steadily to underground storage areas. Rainwater flows quickly over the dry mountains, which can lead to sudden floods.

Mount Catherine is the highest mountain in Egypt, with many other peaks nearby reaching over 2,000 meters (about 6,600 feet).

Religion

Saint Catherine is located in a region important to three major world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. This area is where Moses is believed to have received the Ten Commandments, and many events described in the Bible happened there. Christian monks began living in the area in the 3rd century, and the Orthodox religious tradition has continued until today. The Prophet Mohammed protected the monastery by sending a letter to the monks. Two ancient churches exist there, along with the Monastery of Saint Catherine and the Rock of Moses.

Culture and population

The traditional people of the area, the Jebeliya Bedouin, arrived in the 6th century AD. They were originally Christians but later converted to Islam and married members of other nomadic tribes. Some groups came more recently from the Arabian Peninsula. Their culture is similar to other Bedouin groups, but they have kept some unique traditions. Unlike other Bedouin tribes, the Jebeliya have always practiced farming and are skilled gardeners. This is clear in the wadis near Saint Catherine. They live in a helpful relationship with the monastery and its monks, and many Bedouins now work on the monastery’s land or in its gardens.

The city also has Greeks and Russians who work at the monastery.

The Jebeliya are skilled gardeners and craftsmen who have built gardens, homes, storerooms, water dams, and other structures in the mountains for many years.

The methods they use are similar to those used by the Byzantines. This is partly because of the natural environment and partly because of the connection between the Bedouin and the monastery. The monks gave them seeds to grow crops. They grow vegetables and fruit in stone-walled gardens called Bustan or karm. They also learned grafting, which means attaching a branch from a plant that produces more fruit to a plant that is stronger but produces less fruit.

Many types of plants and crops grow here because of the mild climate. Fruits include apples, pears, apricots, peaches, figs, pistachios, dates, and grapes. Walnuts are rare but grown in some areas. Mulberry trees grow wild in some wadis and belong to the whole tribe. Wild figs grow in many places. Olives are important to the people and are found in many areas. Vegetables are not grown as much as before because of limited water. Flowers and medicinal plants are common.

Water is often found at higher places, such as in natural springs or in wells built at dykes called Jidda. The Bedouins made small dams and blocked canyons to create reservoirs. Water is then directed to small rock pools called birka, where it is used for irrigation. Water sometimes flows for miles through narrow channels made of flat rocks, which are still visible today. Now, gardens use plastic pipes called Khartoum. These gardens and stone structures are special features of the high mountain area.

Bedouin homes are small, simple buildings made of stone with roofs of cane. They are either built into garden walls or placed slightly above the wadi floor, away from dangerous flash floods after heavy rains. Homes are often built next to large rocks, which serve as walls. Natural cracks and holes in the rocks are used as shelves and candle holders inside the homes.

Smaller rock shelters and storage rooms are built under boulders or inside caves. These are found throughout the mountainous area. Some are easy to see, like in Abu Seila or Farsh Rummana, while others are hard to find.

Old leopard traps can be seen in many places, either under rocks like in Wadi Talaa or standing alone, such as on Abu Geefa. A goat was placed inside as bait. When a leopard triggered the trap, a large rock fell to block the entrance. Leopards are now extinct in Sinai; the last one was seen in the 1980s.

In many places, large rocks have oval-shaped marks carved on them. These are marriage proposal rocks. A person would draw a line around their foot next to their lover’s footprint. If both marks were encircled, their wish to marry was granted.

Wishing rocks are boulders with flat tops, usually near paths. According to local stories, if someone throws a pebble and it stays on top, their wish will come true.

According to government plans, the population of the city is expected to grow from 4,603 to 17,378 by 2017. Of Saint Catherine’s population, 3,031 (75.1%) are Jebeliya Bedouins, while the rest are Egyptians, Greeks, Russians, and Western Europeans. If the Egyptian Ministry of Planning’s goals are met and the population grows naturally at a rate of 3% by 2017, the Bedouin population would become a minority in Saint Catherine, making up 36% of the total population.

The population of Saint Catherine by settlement, according to a survey by the St Katherine Protectorate in 1998:

Places of interest

In addition to Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai, the palace of Abbas I is of great historical interest. Abbas I was the ruler and leader of Egypt and Sudan from 1849 to 1854. His palace was built on a mountain called Jebel Tinya, which was later renamed Jebel Abbas Basha. The palace was not completed because Abbas I died before it was finished. However, the thick walls made of granite blocks and bricks remain standing today. At the top of Jebel Somra, near Jebel Abbas Basha, there is an open quarry with large stone blocks. Other blocks were taken from Wadi Zawatin, near the path to the palace. The bricks were made on-site, and the mortar used to hold them together was made from lime and water, burned in kilns in nearby valleys. To transport supplies, a road for camels and donkeys was built. This road, which starts at Abu Jeefa and goes through Wadi Tubuq and Wadi Zawatin, is still used today.

Abbas I was the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled from 1805 to 1848. Abbas I had a strong distrust of foreigners and opposed many changes introduced by his grandfather. He is remembered as a traditionalist who reversed some of his grandfather’s modern reforms. His secretive nature led to uncertainty about how he died—some say he was murdered, others say he had a stroke.

Abbas I built the palace in the mountains partly because he had tuberculosis, which made him seek cleaner air. He also preferred a quiet life and owned other remote palaces. According to tradition, he chose the palace’s location after placing meat on Mount Sinai, Mount Catherine, and Mount Tinya. Where the meat decayed more slowly, he believed the air was cleaner. Some say the monks made up this story to keep him away from holy places.

Abbas I is best known for freeing the fellaheen (peasants) and building the Cairo-Alexandria railway in 1851. He also influenced the area around Saint Catherine’s Monastery by building a path for camels to Mount Sinai and the Askar barracks near the monastery, which now lie in ruins.

There are many ruins of Byzantine monasteries, churches, and settlements in the area. Some are just piles of rocks, while others are hard to tell apart from Bedouin buildings. Well-preserved examples can be found in Bustan el Birka, near Abu Seila and Abu Zaituna. These include churches, homes on hills overlooking gardens, and clusters of buildings.

In Wadi Shrayj, a well-preserved church can be found after passing some ruined Byzantine buildings. Further up, there are older ruins from the Nabataean era (around 300 BC to AD 100). In Wadi Mathar (Wadi Shaq), there is a hermit cell under a large rock. The remains of monks who lived there centuries ago are inside a walled chamber. Higher up, a well-preserved monastic settlement includes homes and a round building that may have been a storage room.

Byzantine Nawamis, which are circular stone tombs, are found in places like Wadi Jebal and Wadi Mathar. A Roman well is halfway up Wadi Jebal, and a well-preserved Byzantine church is near a garden and spring in Wadi Mathar. Another church is at the spring of Ain Nagila, near Jebel el Bab. Ruins of other settlements and buildings are found in Wadi Tinya, Wadi Shaq Tinya, Farsh Abu Mahashur, and other areas.

Bedouin building techniques were influenced by the Byzantines, making it hard to tell their structures apart. However, Byzantine buildings were often in small clusters, and round buildings are likely from the Byzantine period. Bedouin storage rooms under rocks were too low for hermits to pray upright. Byzantine homes had rounded walls, niches, shelves, and tiny doors. Stones were placed without mortar, and roofs were often missing.

Ancient water systems, such as channels and cisterns, were used to collect rainwater for settlements and irrigation. These systems, typical of the Byzantine era, directed water using natural drainage paths and flat stones cemented with natural mortar. Outdoor courtyards were likely used for gatherings and cooking.

Near Serabit al-Khadim, there are ancient turquoise mines and temples from the 12th Dynasty, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, and from the New Kingdom, dedicated to the god Sopdu. These can be reached from Wadi Feiran via Wadi Mukattab (the "Valley of Inscriptions").

Near the Oasis of Ain Hudra, there are many Nawamis. A rock with ancient Egyptian inscriptions is near the main road to Dahab, visible with a guide’s help.

The Blue Desert, also called the Blue Mountain, is visible near Saint Catherine’s Monastery. An artist named Jean Verame painted the area blue in 1980–1981, covering about 15 km². From above, it looks like a dove of peace.

Beyond religious sites near Saint Catherine’s Monastery and Mount Sinai, there are many other churches, monasteries, and holy places. The Chapel of Saint Catherine is on Mount Catherine, where, according to Christian belief, the saint’s body was placed by angels. The saint, born Dorothea in 294 AD, was educated in pagan schools but converted to Christianity and was executed. Her body was later found by monks and placed in a golden casket in the monastery, which became known as Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the 11th century.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery has been active since the 4th century and holds one of the most important libraries in the world, second only to the Vatican. It is visited by nearly 100,000 people each year. Efforts to limit access have helped protect the monastery during times of political unrest.

The Hagar Musa (Rock of Moses) in Wadi El Arbain is a holy site for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is believed to be the rock from which Moses brought water. The twelve clefts on the rock are said to represent the twelve springs mentioned in the Quran. A small Orthodox chapel is nearby. According to a Swiss scholar, some Bedouin believe that making female camels kneel before the rock can increase their fertility and milk production. There is also a rock used for Bedouin marriage proposals within the area.

The Monastery of the Forty Martyrs in Wadi El Arbain was…