Saint Catherine’s Monastery (Arabic: ??? ???????? ?????? Dayr al-Qidd?sa Katr?n, Greek: ???? ???? ????? ??????????? ????? ????, romanized: Iërá Moní Ayías Ekaterínis Órus Siná), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was built between 548 and 565, and is the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery. The monastery was built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, enclosing what is claimed to be the burning bush seen by Moses. Centuries later, the purported body of Catherine of Alexandria, said to have been found in the area, was taken to the monastery; Catherine’s relics turned it into an important Christian pilgrimage, and the monastery was eventually renamed after the saint. Controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, which is part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, the monastery became a World Heritage Site in 2002 for its unique importance to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The monastery includes a Fatimid mosque built in 1106 AD that is still preserved. The monastery library holds unique and rare works, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Syriac Sinaiticus, as well as a collection of early Christian icons, including the earliest known depiction of Christ Pantocrator.
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