Mount Sinai is the mountain where, in Exodus 19–20, Moses is said to have received the Law amid thunder, smoke, and fire. The catch is that no one actually knows which peak it was. The oldest and best-known candidate is Jebel Musa ('the Mountain of Moses'), a 2,285-meter granite summit in the southern Sinai Peninsula, at whose foot stands Saint Catherine's Monastery — a Greek Orthodox community founded in the 6th century, home to a celebrated library and the traditional site of the burning bush. That tradition has been venerated continuously for about 1,500 years, and the monastery is a genuine, UNESCO-listed ancient landmark. But other locations have serious proponents too, including Jebel al-Lawz in northwestern Arabia and Har Karkom in the Negev, and scholars remain divided. The plain fact is that there is no archaeological evidence tying any particular mountain to the biblical event.
- Where it is
- Sinai Peninsula, Egypt (traditional site: Jebel Musa)
- Scripture
- Exodus 19:1-25 · Exodus 20:1-21