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Show •• • - '• • ,- ; . - '- Sheet B*.2.- astery library, that the Covenant cf ths Prophet, whether authentic or .forged, was in some way or v£ohcr reae*ed, aad ths privileges of protection aad safe-gxxxst conduct for the monks of St* Catherine were upheld. Z/Az. -fe^i-Tw^^^^ *-• The route to t he Coavent of St* Catheriae is long and uneasy, la olden times, caravans took eight days to reach the *oaastery from Suez and six from Akaba. Bow with the motor traffic and the improvement of the old caravan road, the whole distance from Cairo to the monastery totalliag 3«2 kilometres or 239 miles may be \ covered with some discomfort ia a aiagle day. - • Like all the great moaaatic foundations of Egypt ia the early ceaturies of ths Christina Bra, ths Monastery of St. Catheriae. has the form aad appearaace of a Soman or Byzaatiae fortress. Its old,JM^J gate was blocked later for reasons of defence, aad a substitute *aB provided by a small rectangular entrance just wide enough for the passage of one person or hardly two. This again is BS fortifisd by a tripple gats linked with thick iroa plates, aad studded with mighty nails. Above this entrance is the famous dual inscription in Greek and in Arabic often quoted by writers and stating that the Moaastery of Mount Sinai was founded by ths fioman Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora in the year 6021 after Adam or 62? A.D* The inscription ia not contemporary with ths foundation! and ths'dats is of course incorrect. - ' " • ' - - From within, ths monastery has all ths - chars cteri sties of a'typical medisval'establishment. With its circuitous passages, vaulted corridors aad flights of half-worn^ stone stairways, with its basilica and numerous chapels, its chapter house, refectory, scriptorium or library, its monastic cells» kuest house* mills store rooms, oil press, distillery, water wells, sad several other features, this monastery constitutes a real labyrlath whexs every inch * of the interior is or has been utilised to. its full capacity. It is a quaint cluster of buildings, sometimes rising to two or three stately storsys high,- sometimes sinking into a mere subtsrraaean cave like ^ v:structure, aad sometimes its diminutive chambers and chapels are built ! or inserted insiie the outer walls. This irregular conglomeration, of structures-where every stone can tell a long tals'is centred round the ancient Chapel of the Burning Bush which has always been regarded as the sanctum sanctorum (ths holy of holies) of this great convent. God's Acre» a limited plot of land is de-voted to the burial of the newly deceased monks . O n the death" of a member of the fraternity, the brothers dig-out" the bones of the oldest dead to make room for the new. Then,they carry the old tones to ths ; •Bons-rcom* whsre they.stacJc the^limas oa<one sids and the skulls on I another. The boaes of the archbishops, however, are kept separately in special ai ches or wooden oaeke ts .. The skeleton of St. Stephanos, who died ia 580 A.D.V is mads to sit in full priestly vestments as if * on guard at the entrance of this •Houss of ^ths Dead**During bis-••A^-ZA- 1 lifetime, he kept watch on the way up XX tns; a*untain and often'r" said he wished he could guard it for ever* ^ The monks remembered: bis$jj$ | words, and, in dsfsrsnce to his will, collected his skeleton-aad seated it where it sits to ths present day. 2SXX; The gruesome sight i s ^ ; ; I mitigatsd only by the view of the lighted ^candles and the burning censers which fill the atmosphere with iacease* |