This monastery is related to the Egyptian Saint Catherine. It is also known as Sinai Monastery, Toor-Sinai Monastery or Al-Toor Monastery. Saint Catherine was born in Alexandria in the late 3rd century.

 

 She was of Egyptian pagan parents. However, she believed in Christianity and was exposed to Roman persecution where Emperor Maxemianos (305-313 A.D) had ordered her to imprisonment, then to execution.

 

 She was martyred when she was nineteen and was buried in Alexandria. Roman and Latin churches celebrate her anniversary on the 25th of November. It is said that her corps was later transferred to Toor-Sinai.

 

Historians unanimously agree that this monastery was built in 306 A.D and named after Virgin Mary. The Byzantine Emperor; Justinian, rebuilt it and named it after Saint Catherine between the years 504 and 545. He entrusted to the Byzantine engineer; Staphanos, to plan the monastery and to design its churches.

 

 The engineer made the monastery 82 m long, 42 m wide and surrounded it by a huge wall with average height of 11 metres and thickness of about 2 metres. The monastery is located at the foot of a hill-peak in Toor-Sinai Mountain at a height of 5012 feet of sea level and at a distance of about 384 km from Cairo. It is the place where Prophet Moses talked to God and received the Ten Commandments from Him.

 

 

Inside the monastery, there is a group of beautiful monumental churches the biggest of which is the Transfiguration Church. It is lower than the surface of the land and it is built on by two and half metres and is stepped down to by 15 steps. It also has a high wooden door embellished with bas-relief representing Prophet Moses and the Transfiguration.

 

 The Church has seven altars; three of which are right to the main sanctuary dedicated to Quesman and Dumian, Simon El-Amoudi and Yuaquim John, opposite to which, on the left side, are three others for Egyptian Mary, Constantine and Helena and Andrianos.

 

 The main altar is in the middle showing the Transfiguration, yet it became known later as Saint Catherine. Eastern to the sanctuary there is a small room church named after the Virgin Lady. It is said that it is the place of the burning bush, so priests pray in it bare-footed respecting what came in the Bible: “Take off your shoes because the place you are standing on is a holy land”

 

In addition to these two churches, there are fourteen others inside the monastery, most of which can hardly bear more than two prayers. Furthermore, there are seventeen other churches outside the wall of the monastery, most important of which is the Trinity Church on top of Moses Mountain.

 

 

Inside the monastery, there is a Fatimid mosque built by the priests 10 metres from the Transfiguration Church for the Moslem visitors to perform their prayers. It was built in 1103 AD, and there are still a rostrum and a chair for reciting Quran inside the mosque. They were made of wood in 1106 AD, and they are considered of the most precious Islamic antiques that date back to the Fatimid era.

 

In the monastery, there is a rare collection of icons and sacred pictures that is considered the greatest and richest of a kind in the whole world. The collection comprises about 2000 pictures and icons from different historical eras. Moreover, it represents a distinctive feature of religious rituals of the Orthodox Church.

 

In addition, the monastery has a valuable library of international fame that includes a rare collection of manuscripts that reach about 3326 in different languages. Furthermore, the library includes a great collection of historic documents that reach about 1742, of which 1072 are Arabic and 670 are Turkish in addition to the books preserved in the library since the appearance of printing until now.

 

 

Ruling authorities in Egypt in the Middle Ages were concerned with preventing priests from harm.

 

 There is a great number of decrees and signatures issued by Egyptian Califs of the Fatimid era and sultans and princes of the Ayyoubid and Mamlouk eras assuring this fact.

 

 This ensures sympathy and protection of the Moslem monarchs through different ages for the monastery's priests in addition to insuring their lives, properties, endowments and rights they acquired all over ages.

 

 Arab tribes in Sinai considered the monastery and its properties as a trust; they protected, served and defended priests' against aggressors like highwaymen and thieves. In addition, they delivered supplies to them and facilitated the ways for Moslem and Christian visitors and pilgrims. It is well known that some Moslem pilgrims used to pass by the monastery on their way to and back from Mecca.