Mount Catherine
— — the highest ground in Egypt, looking back at Sinai.
Not only on a wall.
“The highest peak in Egypt at 2,629 metres, standing south of Mount Sinai in the granite spine of the southern peninsula. Saint Catherine's Monastery sits at its foot, in continuous use since the sixth century. Climbers leave the village before dawn and reach the summit chapel as the sun comes up over the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. — from the studio
Mount Catherine, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Gebel Katherina rises to 2,629 metres in the granite massif of the southern Sinai Peninsula, the highest point in Egypt and about three kilometres south of the more famous Jebel Musa, traditionally identified as Mount Sinai. The mountain takes its name from Saint Catherine of Alexandria, whose relics were said to have been carried to the summit by angels in the fourth century. The surrounding Saint Catherine Protectorate, established in 1988, covers about 4,350 square kilometres and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town of Saint Catherine, at 1,586 metres, is the trailhead for the climb.
The Sinai massif is composed of Precambrian granite roughly 600 million years old, the same basement rock that surfaces across much of Egypt's Eastern Desert. The summit ridge is bare and cold in winter; snow falls most years between December and February. A small stone chapel built in the seventh century stands on the top, ruined and partly rebuilt several times since. Bedouin families from the Jabaliya tribe, descendants of guards posted to the monastery by the emperor Justinian in 530, still run most of the trails as guides on the mountain.
The standard route is a six-to-eight-hour ascent on foot from the village of Saint Catherine, gaining about a thousand metres of elevation. Most parties leave around midnight to reach the summit for sunrise. A local Bedouin guide is required by the protectorate's regulations and arranged through the monastery or the village. Saint Catherine's Monastery, founded by Justinian in 565, holds the world's oldest continuously operating library and is open to day visitors in the morning. The dry, cool months from October through April are the climbing season here.