Looking west from Sinai toward Red Sea & Egypt

Several armed men seated and standing on rocks in mountains.
J153402 U.S. Copyright Office.

Photograph taken from the summit of Mount Sinai (Biblical Sinai or Gebel Musa), looking west and showing the dark summit of Gebel Ashgar in the far horizon to the right from a 10km distance, the box-shape summit of Gebel Ahmar in the centre, Wadi Ahmar and the summit of Gebel Anshil in the far horizon to the left, and the vicinity of Wadi Arba'ien (Leja) in the foreground. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Wadi Arba'ien (Leja) has Nabatean rock inscriptions date back to 1st century CE. Mountain chapels and Byzantine monastic structures are scattered across the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula, including ruined buildings (dwellings), hermit cells, prayer niches, rock-paved paths, rock inscriptions and agricultural plots (water dams, reservoirs & cisterns, conduits and retaining walls) (4th-7th centuries CE). Wadi Arba'ien (Leja) is named after the Monastery of the Forty (Arabic: Arba'ien) Martyrs (Dier El Arba'ien, Arselaus or The Monastery of the Holy Mary of Mercy) in the valley between Biblical Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa or Mosses) and Gebel Ahmar (to the west) and Gebel Katharina (to the southwest). The monastery's ancient orchard has 700 olive trees. The chapel of St. Onophrius was built at the site of the saint's cave, the Egyptian monk who lived 70 years in Sinai and died in 390 CE. There are two ruined buildings, three conduits, three pools and a plastered water well among the olive grove around the fortress/tower-shape monastery building. There is a Hyrax farm of a Gebeliya Bedouin above the monastery's orchard. It is a well known stop and camping grounds for hikers. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
No. 122464.