The stone gate halfway up Mt. Sinai

Several men, most with rifles, near stone arched gate over mountain pass.
J177975 U.S. Copyright Office.
Caption continues: Centuries ago there used to be a monk placed at this gate to pass only those who were freed of all their sins by the Holy Communion and bore a pass from the Monastery as a proof.
Photograph taken from Siqqat Sydina Musa along the Byzantine monastic and pilgrimage naqb to the summit of Mount Sinai (Biblical Sinai) between the lower (St. Stephen) and upper stone gates, looking northeast and showing the vicinity of Wadi Sdud and the eastern section of the ring dyke of the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula in the background, the pointed summit of Gebel Umm Lauz to the left form a 15km distance, and St. Stephen's Gate (Forgiveness, Shrive Gate or lower gate) in the foreground. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Siqqat Sydina Musa is recognised as the traditional naqb followed by prophet Mosses to the summit of Biblical Mount Sinai. The monks paved the path using 3,750 rock steps from Saint Catherine Monastery to the summit in 4th-7th centuries CE, in addition to mountain chapels and Byzantine monastic structures scattered across the valley and on the plateau of Biblical Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai, including ruined buildings (dwellings), hermit cells, prayer niches, rock-paved paths, rock inscriptions and agricultural plots (water dams, reservoirs & cisterns, conduits and retaining walls). The Byzantine monks, pilgrims and travellers (and later tourists) traversed the same route in the footsteps of Mosses to the summit of Mount Sinai since 4th century CE, until the construction of Siqqat Abbas Basha in 1853-54 CE, by Abbas Helmi I the Khedive of Egypt (1849-54). Archbishop Porphyrios II (1904 -1926) restored the steps in 1905 CE. Several ancient monastic and pilgrimage routes lead to the plateau. St. Stephen (6th century CE) whose dressed skeleton is preserved in the "Ossuary or bone-house" under the chapel of St. Tryphon at the monastery's orchard, and the following monks, sat by the gate and shrived the pilgrims prior their arrival to the holy summit. The Gebaliya Bedouins preserve the sole historic right to escort visitors on Mount Sinai. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)

No. 122444.