Mount Sinai

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Mount Sinai (Template:Langx Har Sīnay; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ Ṭūrāʾ dəSīnăy; Coptic: Ⲡⲧⲟⲟⲩ Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), also known as Jabal Musa (Template:Langx, translation: Mountain of Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the three major Abrahamic religions (Torah, Bible, and Quran), the Hebrew prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.<ref name="Vetus Testam.">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="JNES 2014">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="JBL 2003">Template:Cite journal</ref>

It is a Template:Convert, moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Catherine in the region known today as the Sinai Peninsula. It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks in the mountain range of which it is a part. For example, it lies next to Mount Catherine which, at Template:Convert, is the highest peak in Egypt.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GeologyEdit

File:Jebel Musa in the 1869 Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai (cropped).jpg

Jebel Musa in the 1869 Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, shown north of Mount Catherine (Jebel Katarina) and south of Willow Peak (Ras es-Safsafeh)

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed during the late stage of the evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex<ref>Hanaa M. Salem and A. A. ElFouly, "Minerals Reconnaissance at Saint Catherine Area, Southern Central Sinai, Egypt and their Environmental Impacts on Human Health" Template:Webarchive. ICEHM2000, Cairo University, Egypt, September 2000, pp. 586–98</ref> that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline, and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry.

Religious significanceEdit

Judaism and ChristianityEdit

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Immediately north of the mountain is the 6th-century Saint Catherine's Monastery. The summit has a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone.<ref name="sacredsites">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where the Hebrew prophet Moses is believed to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments from God.<ref name="Vetus Testam."/><ref name="JNES 2014"/><ref name="JBL 2003"/>

IslamEdit

The Jabal Musa is associated with the Islamic prophet Mūsā ibn ʿImrān (i.e., Moses).<ref name="JNES 2014"/> In particular, numerous references to Jabal Musa exist in the Quran,<ref name="SharifHerklots1832">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Abbas1984">Template:Cite book</ref> where it is called Ṭūr Saināʾ,<ref name="qref|23|20|b=y">Template:Qref</ref> Ṭūr Sīnīn,<ref name="qref|95|2|b=y">Template:Qref</ref> and aṭ-Ṭūr<ref name="qref|2|63-93|b=y">Template:Qref</ref><ref name="qref|28|3-86|b=y">Template:Qref</ref> and al-Jabal (both meaning "the Mount").<ref name="qref|7|103-156|b=y">Template:Qref</ref> As for the adjacent Wād Ṭuwā (Valley of Tuwa), it is considered as being muqaddas<ref name="qref|20|9-99|b=y">Template:Qref</ref><ref name="qref|79|15-25|b=y">Template:Qref</ref> (sacred),<ref name="IbnKathir Al-Ahmad">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Elhadary2016">Template:Cite book Template:Dead link</ref> and a part of it is called Al-Buqʿah Al-Mubārakah ("The blessed Place").<ref name="qref|28|3-86|b=y" />

St Catherines From Sinai.JPG

Saint Catherine's Monastery, looking down from Mount Sinai
MasjidMountSinai.jpg

The mosque at the summit
Greek Orthodox Chapel at top of Mt Sinai.jpg

The chapel at the summit

Ascent and summitEdit

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>