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To Sinai by car. Peak of Ras Safsaf from Gebel Mousa
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Title from: Catalogue of photographs & lantern slides ... [1936?].
Date from Matson LOT cards.
Photograph taken from the summit of Mount Sinai (Biblical Sinai or Gebel Musa), looking southwest and showing the mountain mass of Gebel Katharina with its twin summits, the summit of Gebel Katharina to the right (Egypt's highest summit) from a 3.5km distance and the summit of Gebel Zugeir to the left, Wadi Siqqat Shagg Musa behind the boulder in centre-right, the outlet of Wadi Garginya in lower-left, and the vicinity of Wadi El Arba'ien (Leja) between Mount Sinai and the mountain mass of Gebel Katharina in the foreground. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Wadi Arba'ien (Leja) has Nabatean rock inscriptions date back to 1st century CE. The valley 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). 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. The summit of Gebel Katharina is the traditional site where the monks of Saint Catherine Monastery found the body of the Saint in 7th century CE. The Crusaders of the Holy Land recognized Saint Catherine as the patron saint of the monastery in 11th century CE. Siqqat Shagg Musa is the historic path to the summit of Gebel Katharina. Ein El Shenar (the spring of the Partridges) is located third of the way up along Siqqat Shagg Musa from Wadi El Arba'ien (Leja), where it is believed according to the tradition that the Partridges marked the spring for the monks who brought down the body of Saint Catherine to the monastery. The chapel and the path were restored by Father Kalisto in 1905 CE. (Source: 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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