St Catherine Monastery Opens to Visitors After Five Month Closure

The isolated sanctuary of Saint Catherine's Monastery, seated at the foot of Mount Sinai, is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monasteries in the world. Although it is a popular tourist site, the monastery closed its doors in 2020 as part of precautionary measures against COVID-19.

Now, after five months of closure, the monastery announced that it will reopen and begin receiving visitors starting Monday, May 17th. The monastery will receive visitors all throughout the week, except on Sundays, Fridays and holidays. It will only be open for visitation from 9 AM until 11:30 AM, meaning you will have two and a half hours to visit the Shuaib Well, the Black Tree, and the Museum Hall.

All visitors will need to abide by the precautionary measures like wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing.