Sinai, St Catherine's Monastery, Chapel of the Burning Bush
Era | 10AD |
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Location | Qesm Sharm Ash Sheikh, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt |
At Sinai, in St Catherine’s Monastery, the small mosaic in the Chapel of the Burning Bush is conventionally dated to the ninth-tenth century. It is hard to date – in part because it is almost impossible to see as access to the chapel is limited and the mosaic is in a steep, low conch behind an altar table – and it has never been properly examined. It depicts a roundel with a cross with flared ends on a blue background, set into a gold background. The cross has led to the assumption that this must relate in some way to Iconoclasm, though this seems unlikely. If it is a tenth-century mosaic, then this is a Christian mosaic placed in a Christian monastery in Islamic territory.