Mount Sinai
The earliest references to Mount Sinai in Egypt, or Mount Sinai being located in the present-day Sinai Peninsula, are inconclusive. There is evidence that before 100 CE, well before the Christian monastic period, Jewish sages equated Jabal Musa with Mount Sinai. Graham Davies of the University of Cambridge argues that early Jewish pilgrimages identified Jabal Musa as Mount Sinai so Christian pilgrims adopted this identification.[30][31] R.K. Harrison states that "Jebel Musa ... seems to have enjoyed special sanctity long before Christian times, culminating in its identification with Mt. Sinai."[32][full ^citation ^needed] In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, Nabataeans were making pilgrimages there, which is indicated in part by inscriptions discovered in the area.[33][full ^citation ^needed] In the 6th century CE, Saint Catherine's Monastery was constructed at the base of this mountain at a site which is believed to be the location of the biblical burning bush.[34]
Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai at 1,550 metres (5,090 ft). The monastery is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox church called the Church of Sinai and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60 100 ha / Ref: 954), Saint Catherine's Monastery is considered to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, although the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also lays claim to that title.
Christian monks settled upon this mountain in the 3rd century CE. Georgians from the Caucasus moved to the Sinai Peninsula in the 5th century CE, and a Georgian colony was formed there in the 9th century CE. Georgians erected Orthodox churches in the area of Mount Sinai. The construction of one such church was connected with the name of King David IV (d. January 1125), who contributed to the erection of Orthodox churches in the Kingdom of Georgia as well as abroad. There were political, cultural, and religious motives for locating the church on Mount Sinai.