The library at Saint Catherine’s Monastery located at the foot of the legendary Mount Sinai, is the oldest continually operating library in the world. The monastery itself is also considered one of the oldest functioning Christian monasteries in the world and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Due to its age and importance in the Christian world, the monastery’s library has the second largest collection of ancient manuscripts and codices, just after Vatican City.
The library houses several unique and important texts, including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest known complete Bible dating back to around 345 CE. A few years ago, the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Library began reproducing digital copies of about 1,100 unique Syriac and Arabic manuscripts from Saint Catherine’s Monastery.
