Mount SinaiAmid the high mountains of Egypt's southern Sinai Peninsula stands Jebel Musa, "Mount Moses," revered by most Christians and Muslims as Mount Sinai. (Jewish tradition holds that Mount Sinai should remain terra incognita, unlocated, and does not associate it with this mountain.) In this fascinating study, Joseph Hobbs draws on geography and archaeology, Biblical and Quranic accounts, and the experiences of people ranging from Christian monks to Bedouin shepherds to casual tourists to explore why this mountain came to be revered as a sacred place and how that very perception now threatens its fragile ecology and its sense of holy solitude. After discussing the physical characteristics of Jebel Musa and the debate that selected it as the most probable Mount Sinai, Hobbs fully describes all Christian and Muslim sacred sites around the mountain. He views Mount Sinai from the perspectives of the centuries-long inhabitants of the region--the monks of the Monastery of St. Katherine and the Jabaliya Bedouins--and of tourists and pilgrims, from medieval Europeans to modern travelers dispirited by Western industrialization. Hobbs concludes his account with the recent international debate over whether to build a cable car on Mount Sinai and with an unflinching description of the negative impact of tourism on the delicate desert environment. His book raises important, troubling questions for everyone concerned about the fate of the earth's wild and sacred places. |
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... built to last . Anyone with an eye for the landscape might , how- ever , question why it was built in the exact spot it was . The structure sits in a narrow valley trough and is vulnerable . Anyone armed with stones , arrows , or more ...
... built chapels to honor their devout predecessors and other holy figures . The substantial - looking chapels that ... built a dam to prevent flooding of the Monastery of St. Katherine below , but it later broke and water inundated ...
... built mosque at the village edge is armed with loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer , audible from 3 kilometers away on the summit of Jebel ' Abbas Pasha and at Mahmuud Mansuur's Abu Dagash garden in Wadi Itlaah . An Egyptian - ...
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
Five | 14 |
YOU WILL WORSHIP GOD ON THIS MOUNTAIN | 32 |
Copyright | |
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Managing Sacred Sites: Service Provision and Visitor Experience Myra Shackley,Myra L. Shackley No preview available - 2001 |