library
St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai
Saint Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt · Africa: Coptic Egypt
28.556, 33.976
Attested. Justinian's building is attested by inscriptions and Procopius. The Burning Bush location is traditional.
Emperor Justinian built the fortified monastery at the traditional site of the Burning Bush in the mid-6th century. Its library is one of the oldest continuously used libraries in the world. Codex Sinaiticus and the Sinaitic Old Syriac Gospels palimpsest both come from here.
Source stance: neutral. Imperial building record, inscriptions, manuscripts.
People and groups named here
- Justinian I
- Egeria (pilgrim, 4th century, before the monastery was built)
Sources
- Saint Catherine Area (UNESCO World Heritage List no. 954)
UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Pleiades place 746826: Tou Batou
Pleiades Gazetteer (ISAW, NYU). Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Saint Catherine's Monastery (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-11-11.
Manuscripts tied to this place
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.