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Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery - stereocsopic card
Summary
Title from negative sleeve.
Taken either by the American Colony Photo Department or its successor, the Matson Photo Service.
Guide card: Sinai.
Photograph taken from in front of the 6th century CE basilica, looking northeast and showing the triangle-shape western façade of the basilica and Gebel El Dier (Selib-Baraka) in the background from right to left, from a 0.9 km distance. (A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Saint Catherine Monastery was constructed between 530 and 545 CE by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527-565 CE). The roof of the basilica consists of two layers of wooden beams made of cypress or pine. Justinian's roof of 6th century CE was made out of eight wooden beams, and another layer was added in 18th century CE. Several inscriptions were found on Justinian's wooden beams from 6th century (547-565 CE). The monastery is famous for its numerous chapels, other than the basilica and its side chapels: "Besides this church and these chapels, there are seventeen other little churches or chapels situated here and there in the convent: 1. that of St Peter and St Paul, which is tolerably large and roomy; 2. St George; 3. St Stephen; 4. St Michael the Archangel; 5. St Basil, Gregory and Chrysostome; 6. Demetrius the martyr; 7. St Nicholas; 8. St moses and Aaron; 9. St Sergius Wachas; 10. St John Baptist; 11. St Anthony the abbot; 12. of the five martyrs Eustratius, Euxendius, Barbarius, Orestus and Eugenius; 13. St John the Evangelist; 14. St Catherine; 15. and 16. two Episcopal chapels; 17. one in the garden where the friars are buried." (The Prefetto of Egypt, 1722) (A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Gift; Episcopal Home; 1978.
The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).
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