

I'hutL 



J copyright by Underwood & Underwood 



I.OOKING DOWN ON THE MONASTERY OE ST. CATHERINE, IN THE DESERT OE SINAI 



Excepting for the Mount Sinai Monastery, which from these heights looks like a little 

 toy fort built of blocks, the region is still and hushed and almost deserted. Its massive walls, 

 raised by the peace-loving and God-fearing monks under Justinian, in 527 A. D. (as a pro- 

 tection against the marauding Bedouin tribes that infest this part of the country), when the 

 wealth of an empire was possessed by the builders and occupants of the monastery, are in 

 the same condition as when built, 1400 years ago. Today, however, the Christian world 

 keeps_ a watchful eye over this mountain monastery and its contents, and the Bedouins, 

 knowing this to be the fact, are on friendly as well as visiting terms with the monks. 



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