Saint Catherine Monastery's 14-Century-Old Library Reopens

Following a decade of extensive renovation efforts, Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled Al Enany reopened on Friday the ancient Saint Catherine Monastery's library, which is one of the oldest operating libraries of its kind in the world, Al Masry Al Yom reports.The 6th-century library contains up to 6000 rare manuscripts in Greek ,Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, Hebrew, Armenian and Polish, with the oldest of them dating back to as far back as the 4th century.

"The library has the second biggest collection of ancient manuscripts after the Vatican, which makes it a vital source of information for historians and researchers," the St. Catherine Monastry's Bishop, Damianos, tells Sky News Arabia.
Similarly, the monastery's iconic 16th-century mosaic, which is one of the biggest in the region with a total area of 46 meter squared, was also restored to its original condition after a 4-year renovation program.

Main Photo: Saint Catherine's Renovated Mosaic 

Library Photos: Youm7