Convent of St Catherine, Mt Sinai

The Convent of St Catherine houses the relics of St Catherine and is situated at the foot of Mount Sinai on the spot where Moses saw the burning bush. Founded in 527 by Emperor Justinian, it is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery.

By the early nineteenth century the monks, who were mainly Greek, were famed for their hospitality, and despite the fact that the convent - which was designed in the form of a square fortress - could only be entered by climbing a rope through a trapdoor thirty feet above the ground, it was a popular resting place for travelers.

Roberts and his party arrived on the 18th of February and he noted in his journal: 'We were drawn up one by one, our elbows and knees receiving sundry thumps and bumps in the course of the ascent. We were ushered through a labyrinth of passages and staircases to the dormitories we were to occupy. The Superior received us in person with the greatest attention and kindness. A supper was soon provided of rice and dried dates and never did [a] poor pilgrim sleep more soundly than I under the hospitable roof of the monks of St Catherine. Roberts’s travelling companion, Kinnear, also described other comforts such as the excellent glass of arack, a smoking pilaf, and, for him, the greatest luxury, ‘the clear cool sparkling water from the convent well’.

The party spent four nights at the Convent and Roberts was granted permission to make drawings. This lithograph shows the main court with its atmospheric balconies and belvederes, along with an assortment of pitchers and jars that stand on wooden tables and hang on a wall to the right.