St. Catherine's Monastery - Celebrated Site of Moses' Burning Bush

Pilgrimage Site in the Sinai Desert North of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt

St. Catherine's Monastery (also spelled St. Katherine's) is the celebrated site of the burning bush where God spoke to Moses. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai in the Sinai Desert of Egypt, St. Catherine's Monastery is more than the burning bush. Built in the 4th century, it is one of the world's oldest monasteries and houses the second largest (after the Vatican) collection of codices and manuscripts, most of which are written in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, or Syriac.

Although travelers can reach St. Catherine's via car, bus, or even airplane today, visitors in the past had to endure great hardship to reach this remote desert outpost. Mount Sinai is revered by three religions--Christian, Jewish, and Muslim--as where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, so pilgrims have been making the long trek to St. Catherine's for centuries. We visited St. Catherine's on a full-day excursion from the Silver Whisper, riding three hours north of Sharm el-Sheikh on a modern coach.