St Catherine monastery

The orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine lies at an altitude of 1570m at the foot of Mount Sinai in the south of the Sinai peninsula. It was built during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) and is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world. The libryry of the monastery houses the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library. The monastery is surrounded by walls like a fortress and lies in a valley between steep mountains. It has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2002.