MOUNT SINAI

MOUNT SINAI

Mount Sinai (Hebrew: הר סיני‎ Har Sinai) (Arabic: طور سيناء‎ Ṭūr Sīnā’; or جبل موسى Jabal Mūsá, Egyptian Arabic Gabal Musa, lit. "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is the traditional and most accepted identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

Mount Sinai is a 2,285-metre (7,497 ft) high mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount St. Catherine (at 2,629 m/8,625 ft, the highest peak on the Sinai peninsula and of Egypt). It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex 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 subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from different depths.