Located at the foot of Mount Moses,
St. Catherine's Monastery, was constructed by order of the Emperor
Justinian between 527 and 565. It is built around what is thought to be
Moses' Burning Bush, which has a chapel built atop it.
It is a spectacular natural setting for priceless works of art,
including Arab mosaics, Greek and Russian icons, Western oil paintings,
paintings on wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels,
chalices, reliquaries, including one donated by Czar Alexander II in the
19th century, and another by Empress Catherine of Russia in the 17th
century.
But of perhaps even greater significance is that it is one of
the largest and most important collection of illuminated manuscripts
in the world (The Vatican has the largest). The collection consists of
some 4,500 volumes in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic,
Syriac, Georgian and other languages.
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