St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai

At the foot of Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Law, Justinian built a fortress monastery around 560 over the place of the Burning Bush. Later it was named for St. Katherine, whose relics are kept there. It has never been destroyed in fourteen centuries, and its library holds some of the oldest manuscripts and icons in the world, including the famous 6th-century icon of Christ Pantokrator. Pilgrims climb the mountain at night to see the sunrise from the summit.

• Date: c. 560