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October 28, 2007
Should I Feel Sad About This?
This month's Biblical Archaeology Review has an interview with Father Justin, the only Monk of American origin at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. He is also the librarian for the monastery. When asked about the number people visiting the monastery on a daily basis, Father Justin gave this, to me shocking, answer,
Over a thousand, especially in the winter. Hundreds of thousands in the course of a year.
Shirley and I visited Saint Catherine's in 1970. There were about thirty of us. Nelson Glueck and his wife led our group. Ruben Bullard, the Gezer staff geologist, was also with us. We nearly maxed out the facilities. This was Glueck's last visit to the Sinai. We spent the night in the monastery's visitor dormitories and ate green chicken for dinner (don't ask). In the morning, some of us climbed Jebel Musa. But all that was before paved roads up the wadi or a hotel just a ten minute cab ride away. I'm not sure if any tourists stay at the monastery these days. In 1970, their facilities were vary limited and in need of repair. Some of that much needed repair came in 1975. We took busses with special suspensions (or was it no suspensions) up the wadi from el Tur. el Tur, now a tourist spot in the Sinai, was then a bombed out ghost town. We camped in vacate buildings that had been cleared by the Israelis for that purpose. After spending the night at Saint Catherine's we returned to el Tur. While no one could point to any changes, we all thought the facilities at el Tur had improved greatly in less than 48 hours. That's how primitive it was in the monastery dormitories.
I've written about this adventure a couple of other times.
Posted by Duane Smith at October 28, 2007 9:20 AM | Read more on Archaeology |
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