The UNESCO World Heritage Committee added the monastery in Sinai to its list of protected sites at its meeting in Budapest on 28 June. Jill Kamil describes what has been tabled as mixed property -- cultural and natural Mount Sinai (Gabal Moussa) is accepted in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the place where God appeared to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments. At its foot lies the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. Its long existence and priceless, virtually-intact collections of icons and manuscripts can almost certainly be attributed to the safety of its location, tucked away in the barren rocky landscape of South Sinai. "The site has been described on the World Heritage List as mixed property, cultural and natural," said Gaballa Ali Gaballa, member of the Permanent Committee of the Ministry of Culture and head of the delegation to Budapest. "That means that the monastery and the area around it have been listed; that is to say, 601 square kilometres located within the 4,300 feddans of the Sinai protectorate." The first steps to conserve the natural and cultural features of South Sinai were taken back in 1996 when the St Catherine Protectorate was declared under the management of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) and the commission of the European Union. The aim then was to conserve the area by laying down certain rules for visitors. These included respecting the sanctity of the land; protecting its large variety of flora and fauna (some unique to Sinai); forbidding visitors from removing or interfering with animals, plants or rocks; requesting them to dress conservatively when visiting the monastery and to respect the local cultures of the Bedouin (seven different tribes live in or around the protectorate); and ensuring that people remove their litter or place it in the bins provided. The aims were prudent, but they could not be fully implemented because controversy arose on the question of responsibility. All natural reserves in Egypt, which differ in kind, are run by the EEAA which has voiced concerns about the advisability of privatisation. However, some national newspapers -- including Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar -- have called for this, claiming that the government cannot control all the reserves and that investors "under the supervision of the EEAA" are necessary. However, Ibrahim Abdel-Geleel, executive head of the EEAA, points out that according to Law 102 of 1983 the EEAA, in cooperation with different ministries and governmental bodies, is the only authority responsible for running natural reserves. Abdel-Geleel accused the private sector of aiming "at gaining quick profits without giving much care to natural wealth". 'It [i.e. the private sector] could never be an alternative to the EEAA," he added. As the controversy raged, the monastery's Greek Orthodox monks found their haven of tranquillity falling more and more under threat. There was no control of the area around the monastery, which was rapidly being developed to meet tourist demands. The El-Salaam Hotel, Morgan Land, St Catherine's Village and Zeitouna Camp sprang up, followed by several cafés. The monks, naturally, resented their loss of privacy. They made an effort to control the movement of pilgrims, limiting visiting hours and giving access to carefully-controlled areas within the monastery complex. But then a modern highway was built, and an airport, and tourists and pilgrims began to arrive in their thousands, in groups of 30 to 50, several times a day -- and on every day of the year that the monastery is open. So many tourists climbed the 2,244-metre-high Mount of the Law that its sacred peak became littered with soft drink bottles and cans, plastic bags and other refuse. The fruitful lower reaches of Mount Catherine -- the highest peak in the Sinai peninsula, named in honour of the monastery's patron saint -- became depleted of the desert herbs and reeds which provided nutritious feed for camels and goats. Its summit was treated with ill-respect by adventure travellers. As a World Heritage Site, a management and protection plan will now be set in motion by the minister of culture, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the governorate of South Sinai and the monastery authorities themselves. "What we are dealing with now is a much smaller area that takes in the St Catherine complex with its main church, the chapel of the "burning bush", the old refectory, the Fatimid mosque and the library," Gaballa said. "It also includes the environs with Mount Sinai and Mount Catherine. We will ensure that the pristine quality of the land is protected from further pollution, and that the Sinai Bedouin, particularly the Jabaliya who are heirs of hundreds of years of nomadism and who have played an integral part in monastic life almost from its beginning, will be imbued with a new sense of awareness for environmental protection." The areas of South Sinai which are described on the World Heritage list encompass: The Monastery of St Catherine, constructed in 530 by the Emperor Justinian who gave orders for architects and builders to go to Sinai to build a fortification enclosing a large new basilica. This, the Church of the Transfiguration, replaced an earlier chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin on the site of the "burning bush" where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The site was considered sacred by large numbers of ascetics from various parts of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, including Egypt and Syria, many of whom escaped there to avoid Roman persecution. The first written documentation of such pious communities are found in the narratives of the monks Silvanus, Ammonius and Nilus, who lived in Sinai between 350 and 420. The latter described continued raids on Christians by aggressive Blemmys, tribes from the Eastern Desert, who looted the monastery and even murdered monks. This was the reason for Justinian's building. This is one of the few churches of early Christendom to have survived, and is one of the finest and richest cathedrals in existence. The interior is an impressive example of Greek ecclesiastical architecture and adornment, rich and opulent. The nave is flanked by six monolithic marble columns, the capitals of which support arches and the upper walls of the clerestory, which is set with rectangular windows. Between the columns are elaborately-carved thrones of the patriarchs and bishops, and the walls are covered with icons and painting, some of great antiquity. The nave is separated from the altar by a 17th- century gilded iconostasis presented to the monastery by the patriarch Cosmos of Crete. In front of it are three pairs of tall early-18th-century candlesticks; the iconostasis is crowned by a great crucifix bearing the figure of Jesus Christ painted in bright colours; and behind is the altar table, inlaid with mother of pearl, the work of a 17th-century Athenian artist. The vault of the apse above the altar is adorned with the monastery's greatest treasure, an astonishing sixth-century mosaic. The figures stand out in exquisite shades of blue, green and red against a background of dull gold glass. To the right of the altar is a marble sarcophagus or domed canopy supported by four slender marble columns containing two richly inlaid silver caskets. These hold the relics of St Catherine: one contains her skull encircled by a golden crown studded with gems, and the other her left hand, ornamented with gold rings set with precious stones. To the left of the altar is a votive sarcophagus, wrought in pure gold and studded with precious stones; the two sarcophagi were gifts of the Czars of Russia, Peter the Great in 1680, and Alexander II in 1860. The Chapel of the Burning Bush, the most sacred part of the monastery, is a small chamber that lies below and behind the altar of the church. The bush, protected by a stone wall, is of a bramble species, the like of which is not to be found in all Sinai; it neither blooms nor gives any fruit, although carefully tended by the monks. The Mosque near the belfry stands as evidence of the protection of the monastery by the caliphs of Egypt, and also the monks' tolerant attitude to Islam. It is a rectangular building with two sturdy pillars upon which the arches of the roof rest. Although it is generally assumed that the structure was erected as a mosque, there is archaeological evidence to show that it was originally a guest house and was converted into a mosque in the early 11th century. Inside is a pulpit with a kufic text recording that it was built to fulfil a wish of Abu Mansour Anushtaken in 1106. The minaret faces the church belfry, and the local Bedouin, the Jabaliya, are entrusted with the keys to the mosque as a hereditary privilege. The Old Refectory, situated south-east of the basilica, is a rectangular chamber 17 metres long with an arched roof in Gothic style. The long wooden table, brought from Corfu in the 18th century, is carved with angels and flowers in rococo style. Both the outside and inside of the door frame, as well as the inner and outer frames of the window, bear coats-of-arms of European pilgrims in mediaeval times. A small chapel attached to the refectory is liberally marked with graffiti by visitors from the 14th to 17th centuries. The Library, which was built between 1930 and 1942, is a spacious and well-built fireproof concrete wing more than 10 metres wide and 15 metres long. It represents one of the richest monastic collections in the world, second in importance only to the Vatican. It contains more than 6,000 volumes and manuscripts, 3,000 of which are ancient, the bulk -- more than 2,000 -- in Greek, and hundreds of others in 12 languages including Arabic (some 700), Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Polish and Slavonic. The Icon Collection is the monastery's great artistic treasure. The most important single collection in the world, it includes more than 2,000 works, 150 of which are unique pieces dating from the fifth to the seventh centuries. The collection represents some of the finest Byzantine work and includes a large number of icons from the period of the iconoclasm (726-843), when the depiction of the saintly or divine form in art was considered heretical. In Christian centres elsewhere during this period almost all representations of religious figures in icons, mosaics and wall paintings were removed or destroyed. Only in the remote Monastery of St Catherine did so large a number remain unharmed. In what is known by the monks as the Treasury, or Sacred Sacristy, several important manuscripts are displayed in glass cabinets. These include a fine collection of icons, including some of the oldest and most valuable owned by the monastery. Also on display is a large collection of ancient and modern vestments embroidered in gold and silver thread, mitres, chalices and trays of the finest workmanship, gold and silver crosses of various sizes and shapes, and illuminated Bibles of incredible beauty in gold and silver filigree containers set with precious stones. Mount Sinai, honoured by the three great monotheistic religions, rises behind the monastery and is bounded to the west by Wadi Al-Laja (Valley of Refuge), and to the east by Wadi Al- Deir (Valley of the Monastery). There are several paths leading to the summit, the one most frequently used being Sikket Sayidna Musa, or "path of our Lord Moses", which commences immediately behind the monastery. On the summit are two granite buildings, a chapel and a mosque, both of modern date. The former is on the site of the original chapel erected by Justinian, which was destroyed and rebuilt many times; the latter is most frequently visited by Muslims who celebrate the mulid of Nabi Saleh in Wadi Al- Sheikh each year. The mountain which bears the name of the patron saint of the monastery, Mount Catherine (Gabal Katrin), is a huge naked rock of granite descending steeply on all sides. At the mouth of the Wadi Al-Laja, which leads to it, are many early structures including the Monastery of the Forty Martyrs (Deir Al-Arba'in), which owes its name to the martyrs who were slain by the Blemmy tribes. Its base is extremely fruitful, its upper slopes picturesque, with herbs and grasses, and on its summit is a small chapel built into the contours of the rock face dedicated to the saint. It is to be hoped that this mountainous sanctuary, the monastery and the sacred peaks in one of the most picturesque areas of South Sinai will now be protected from the burden of further development in the name of tourism.
