It is a 2,285-meter (7,497 ft), moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Catherine in the region known today as the Sinai Peninsula. It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks in the mountain range of which it is a part. For example, it lies next to Mount Catherine which, at 2,629 m or 8,625 ft, is the highest peak in Egypt.[4]
Geology
Jebel Musa in the 1869 Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, shown north of Mount Catherine (Jebel Katarina) and south of Willow Peak (Ras es-Safsafeh)
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed during the late stage of the evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex[5] that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline, and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanicporphyry.
Immediately north of the mountain is the 6th-century Saint Catherine's Monastery. The summit has a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone.[6] At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where the Hebrew prophetMoses is believed to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments from God.[1][2][3]
Islam
The Jabal Musa is associated with the Islamic prophet Mūsā ibn ʿImrān (i.e., Moses).[2] In particular, numerous references to Jabal Musa exist in the Quran,[7][8] where it is called Ṭūr Saināʾ,[9]Ṭūr Sīnīn,[10] and aṭ-Ṭūr[11][12] and al-Jabal (both meaning "the Mount").[13] As for the adjacent WādṬuwā (Valley of Tuwa), it is considered as being muqaddas[14][15] (sacred),[16][17] and a part of it is called Al-Buqʿah Al-Mubārakah ("The blessed Place").[12]
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.[18]
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