a famous mountain of Arabia Petræa, on which God gave the law to
Moses, Exod. xix, 1; xxiv, 16; xxxi, 18; xxxiv, 2, 4, &c; Lev. xxv, 1;
xxvi, 46. It stands in a kind of peninsula, formed by the two arms of
the Red Sea; one extending north, called the Gulf of Kolsom; the other
extending east, called the Gulf of Elan. The Arabs call Mount Sinai by
the name of Tor, that is, the mountain, by way of excellence; or Gibel
Mousa, “the mountain of Moses.” It is two hundred and sixty miles from
Cairo, which is a journey of ten days. The wilderness of Sinai, where
the Israelites continued encamped almost a year, and where Moses erected
the tabernacle of the covenant, is considerably elevated above the rest
of the country; the ascent to it is very craggy, the greater part cut
out of the rock; then one comes to a large space of ground, which is a
plain surrounded on all sides by rocks and eminences, whose length is
nearly twelve miles. Toward the extremity of this plain, on the north,
two high mountains appear; the highest is called Sinai, the other Horeb.
They are of very steep ascent, and do not stand on much ground in
comparison to their extraordinary height. Sinai is at least one third
part higher than the other, and its ascent more upright and difficult.
The top of the mountain terminates in an uneven and rugged space, which
might contain about sixty persons. On this eminence is built a little
chapel, called St. Catherine’s, where it is thought the body of this
saint rested for three hundred and sixty years; but afterward it was
removed into a church at the foot of the mountain. Near this chapel
issues a fountain of very good fresh water; it is looked upon as
miraculous, it not being conceivable how water can flow from the brow of
so high and so barren a mountain. Mount Horeb stands west of Sinai; so
that at sun-rising the shadow of Sinai covers Horeb. Beside the little
fountain at the top of Sinai, there is another at the foot of Horeb,
which supplies the monastery of St. Catherine. Five or six paces from
thence they show a stone, whose height is four or five feet, and breadth
about three, which they say is the very stone from whence Moses caused
the water to gush out. Its colour is of a spotted grey; and it is, as it
were, set in a kind of earth, where no other rock appears. This stone
has twelve holes or channels, which are about a foot wide, from whence
they say the water issued which the Israelites drank.
“Sinai,” says Sandys, “has three tops of a marvellous height; that on
the west side, where God appeared to Moses in a bush, fruitful in
pasturage, far lower than the middlemost, and shadowed when the sun
riseth thereon; which is that whereon God gave the law to Moses, and
which is now called the Mount of Moses, at the foot of which stands the
monastery called St. Catherine’s, from which there were steps formerly
up to the very top of the mountain, and were computed fourteen thousand
in number. At present some of them are broken, but those that remain are
well made, and easy to go up and down. There are, in several places of
the ascent, good cisterns; and especially near the top, a fair and good
one. The third or most easterly summit is called by the religious in
those parts, Mount Catherine; on the top of which there is a dome, under
which they say was interred the body of this saint, brought thither by
angels after she was beheaded at Alexandria.” One may judge of the
height of St. Catherine’s Mount, which certainly is not so high as that
of Moses by a third part, from this circumstance, that Thevenot found
much snow on both when he was there, which was in February. The
monastery of St. Catherine is from Cairo some eight days’ journey over
the deserts.
Moses, Exod. xix, 1; xxiv, 16; xxxi, 18; xxxiv, 2, 4, &c; Lev. xxv, 1;
xxvi, 46. It stands in a kind of peninsula, formed by the two arms of
the Red Sea; one extending north, called the Gulf of Kolsom; the other
extending east, called the Gulf of Elan. The Arabs call Mount Sinai by
the name of Tor, that is, the mountain, by way of excellence; or Gibel
Mousa, “the mountain of Moses.” It is two hundred and sixty miles from
Cairo, which is a journey of ten days. The wilderness of Sinai, where
the Israelites continued encamped almost a year, and where Moses erected
the tabernacle of the covenant, is considerably elevated above the rest
of the country; the ascent to it is very craggy, the greater part cut
out of the rock; then one comes to a large space of ground, which is a
plain surrounded on all sides by rocks and eminences, whose length is
nearly twelve miles. Toward the extremity of this plain, on the north,
two high mountains appear; the highest is called Sinai, the other Horeb.
They are of very steep ascent, and do not stand on much ground in
comparison to their extraordinary height. Sinai is at least one third
part higher than the other, and its ascent more upright and difficult.
The top of the mountain terminates in an uneven and rugged space, which
might contain about sixty persons. On this eminence is built a little
chapel, called St. Catherine’s, where it is thought the body of this
saint rested for three hundred and sixty years; but afterward it was
removed into a church at the foot of the mountain. Near this chapel
issues a fountain of very good fresh water; it is looked upon as
miraculous, it not being conceivable how water can flow from the brow of
so high and so barren a mountain. Mount Horeb stands west of Sinai; so
that at sun-rising the shadow of Sinai covers Horeb. Beside the little
fountain at the top of Sinai, there is another at the foot of Horeb,
which supplies the monastery of St. Catherine. Five or six paces from
thence they show a stone, whose height is four or five feet, and breadth
about three, which they say is the very stone from whence Moses caused
the water to gush out. Its colour is of a spotted grey; and it is, as it
were, set in a kind of earth, where no other rock appears. This stone
has twelve holes or channels, which are about a foot wide, from whence
they say the water issued which the Israelites drank.
“Sinai,” says Sandys, “has three tops of a marvellous height; that on
the west side, where God appeared to Moses in a bush, fruitful in
pasturage, far lower than the middlemost, and shadowed when the sun
riseth thereon; which is that whereon God gave the law to Moses, and
which is now called the Mount of Moses, at the foot of which stands the
monastery called St. Catherine’s, from which there were steps formerly
up to the very top of the mountain, and were computed fourteen thousand
in number. At present some of them are broken, but those that remain are
well made, and easy to go up and down. There are, in several places of
the ascent, good cisterns; and especially near the top, a fair and good
one. The third or most easterly summit is called by the religious in
those parts, Mount Catherine; on the top of which there is a dome, under
which they say was interred the body of this saint, brought thither by
angels after she was beheaded at Alexandria.” One may judge of the
height of St. Catherine’s Mount, which certainly is not so high as that
of Moses by a third part, from this circumstance, that Thevenot found
much snow on both when he was there, which was in February. The
monastery of St. Catherine is from Cairo some eight days’ journey over
the deserts.