Sinai (sī′nī), a mountain in northwestern Arabia, known as the place where Moses received the tables of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The mountain is a single peak in a great rocky mass which almost fills the peninsula of Sinai, a point between two arms of the Red Sea: the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba. There are three separate mountains, Mount Catherine being the one usually thought to be indicated by the name Sinai. This mountain has two peaks, the northern one, known as Mount Horeb, and the southern one, called the Mountain of Moses. This sonuthern peak is generally agreed upon as the place of the giving of the law, though it is still disputed. At its foot is the Church of St. Catherine, built about 527 by Emperor Justinian; a little higher up, the chapel of St. Elias; and on the summit a little pilgrim-church. The whole peninsula, as well as the bold, jagged mountains, has a stern, treeless aspect, though palms, acacias and tamarisks grow in the ravines. The Bedawin Arabs range over the region with their sheep and goats. There are many caves among the mountains, which have been the abodes of hermits, and many inscriptions on the rocks which date back to the era of the early Christians. Consult Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine and E. H. Palmer's Desert of the Exodus.
