Would they do this around a mosque?
“Plans for mega-luxe resort spark fury as bulldozers invade site where Moses received Ten Commandments,” by Ben Cost, New York Post, September 11, 2025:
They view it as a plague of Egypt.
For centuries, Mount Sinai has been a mecca for worshippers and tourists hoping to experience traditional Bedouin culture. Now, the sacred holy site — revered among Jews, Christians and Muslims alike — is under threat from a new luxury development that locals fear “disfigures” the region.
Dubbed the Great Transfiguration Project, the state-sponsored tourism campaign aims to erect five hotels, hundreds of villas, a 1.4-acre visitors’ center and a shopping complex in and around St. Catherine Protectorate, New Lines Magazine reported.
The monumental undertaking, which is slated for a 2026 completion, is being billed by the Egyptian government as a “gift to the entire world and all religions,” the BBC reported.
Cultural preservationists disagree. “I call it the Grand Disfiguration Project,” John Grainger, the former manager of a European Union project to develop the area, told New Lines Magazine.
Locals fear that the development will cause irreparable damage to the world-renowned landmark, which is described in the both the Bible and Quran as the site of multiple momentous events, including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and where he communed with the Burning Bush.
The remote desert locale is also home to 6th century St. Catherine’s Monastery, the world’s oldest continuously-functioning monastery, where Christian relics are housed.
It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.
Most vulnerable are perhaps the Bedouin Jebeleya tribe (whose name literally means “people of the mountain” in Arabic), who have guarded the monastery for centuries and now serve as tour guides.
While the GTP has been billed as a move to promote sustainable tourism while preserving the region’s heritage, experts say it’s been imposed on the Bedouin against their will. The Sinai tribespeople have already had their homes and tourist camps destroyed sans compensation, while some were forced to exhume corpses from the local cemetery so a new parking lot could be put in….
Carmen says
No surprise here. Muslims love to erase Christian buildings.
Taffy says
I cannot speak as to where Moses saw the burning bush, but he received the 10 commandments in what is now Saudi Arabia and not in Egypt. There is simply no archeological evidence of Mt. Sinai being in Egypt.
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ?si=u-SKy3FxYXUjMbu2
gravenimage says
Taffy–wth respect–this seems pretty iffy to me. Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula is between Egypt and Israel–Saudi Araba is not.
GE says
First, the Hagia Sofia, other Christian Churches, and now St. Catherine’s—
Such sacrilege.
When is the Pope going to speak out? Orthodox leaders?
I know. Crickets.
gravenimage says
+1
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I’d like to see a day when Israel has to re-occupy the Sinai, and this time, annexes it. As well as take complete control of the Suez Canal
Egypt deserves none of it
somehistory says
This is like an abusive husband keeping his wife from being close to her family….he stops her use of phones, cars, and even the mail in order to isolate her with his **control**. The abused wife does everything she can to placate and appease her abuser. Nothing works.
muzziescum know that these things are important to others, so they target these things in order to make their enemies fear them, and some victims even make attempts to appease them so the muzziescum will relent, just a little. But the abuse is pleasurable to the muzziescum, so they look for more ways to make their enemies unhappy and fearful.
“The earth is ripe for reaping.”
Christians realize that “God does not reside in man-made houses.”
Lady of the lake says
St Catherine Monastery, long ago erected, defiled and disfigured the holy site. The Christians can move their relics (idols) to the wonderful city of graven images, the Vatican.
gravenimage says
The idea that this Egyptian tourist attraction is fine, but that this 1600-year-old monastery is the real problem is perverse. And the Vatican is *not* Greek Orthodox–why pretend that it is?
gravenimage says
Egypt plans to make Saint Catherine’s Monastery into a massive tourist attraction with hotels and shopping complex
…………………………………………………….
Muslim apologists claim that Muhammed showed his toleranc by granting St Catherine’s Monastery perpetual protction–but they don’t mean it.
JS says
If the Muslims find out something belongs to another – they quickly find a way to “make it holy” for Islam. It never fails.
It would be truly funny if we could get a few people together and say that an archeological find was made, and write an article and claim it may be, an itty bit, could be proof that Islam is true OR ___________ OR__________, Or we can leave it up and let them find it themselves! (smile)
THIS WOULD DRIVE THEM NUTS and I wouldn’t feel a thing. Drag that story until they tire themselves out with that RAGE BOY face. lol.
Troybeam says
A gift to the world, ok try this leave it alone. as it was meant to be.
Must need money, people smart on Islam will stay away, radical groups will try and destroy the place.
Islam has destroyed so much of it’s Egyptan history from the past but not quite as much as other Islamic nations, the pyramids are still standing.
memi says
The Al-Sisi secular government of Egypt is, as always, under severe pressure by the Muslim Brotherhood (headquarters in Islamofascist Turkey and Qatar) to destroy this Byzantine Orthodox Monastery founded in the 6th Century and containing invaluable Byzantine Christian artifacts and icons. A pilgrimate for Orthodox Christians universally and a Christian cultural treasure protected by UNESCO.
It contains invaluable Byzantine Orthodox Christian artifacts and manuscripts.
The historic is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, which is part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church. The historic Byzantine Orthodox Monastery became a World Heritage Site in 2002 and the
the monastery itself is protected by UNESCO and is officially the “the property of the Greek Orthodox Church and belongs to the Archdiocese of Sinai”. But the Egyptian courts’ judgments reflect its members’ Muslim Brotherhood Islamist ideology.
Both the Archbishop of Athens and the Greek Government have made dozens of official requests and visits to president Al-Sisi’s Egyptian government to overturn the Egyptian Courts’ decision (by Muslim Brotherhood judges) to destroy what constitutes a pilgrimage of Christian Orthodoxy and World Heritage historic site for all Christians.
The Egyptian high courts are, unfotunately, ruled by Islamist members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian President Al-Sisi tries to compromise to avoid yet another Islamist revolution as happened when Morsi was installed 2011-2012 and Egypt was ruined till al-Sisi took control with his secular government a year later–his government not exactly Switzerland, but the trains and economy run smoothly compared to Morsi’s Islamofascist Egypt for that year of ruin 2011-2012.
Lenny Leaps In says
Actually, the ‘mountain’ near the base of St Catherine’s monastery is not the real Mt Sinai. Wrong location. The real Mt Sinai is Jabal Al Lawz near the border in Saudi Arabia. Check out ‘The Mountain of Moses’ on YouTube…