Museum for St. Catherine Monastery's acquisitions of icons and documents

A museum of the acquisitions of St Catherine Monastery has been recently opened at one of the annexes of the monastery.

The displayed items include a large and rare collection of icons and documents belonging to the 4th century AD till date, which actually represent an invaluable cultural and religious treasure.

The area of the museum is 250 sq metres and it used to be the premises of the archbishop until the beginning of the 80s.The display area has been enlarged by adding a new building which goes with the style of the old one.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York has contributed to the designing of the state-of-the art display methods while the restoration of the building was executed in cooperation with experts from Greece and Cyprus.

The exhibits have been arranged according to historic epochs.

Among the collections is one called Mohamed Trust which shows a number of historic documents, the most important of which is the document granted by Prophet Mohamed to the monks of Sinai in the second Hajira year ( 623 AD) securing their rights and privileges.

The museum includes icons of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary and among the significant documents is a decreed personally signed by Napoleon Bonaparte stating privileges granted to the monastery of Tor Sinai.