It looks like a rectangular fort, surrounded by high granite walls enclosing the different elements of the monastery, built by the emperor Justinian in 527, it was originally the idea of the empress Helen of Russia. The monastery is lying between 2 sacred mountains: Moses mountain, 2285 meters high, on which the prophet received the "Tables of the law". and St. Catherine mountain, 2367 meters high, on which the angels placed the body of the saint. discovered 500 years later, the body was taken to the monastery. The main elements of the monastery are; A small mosque built in the 10th century, Moses fountain and the garden, The library containing 3500 manuscripts (Greek, Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Slavic) which represent the second best world collection after that of the Vatican. The museum containing the treasure; Russian and French cups, reliquaries, icons, crosses, sacerdotal ornaments.

The Church of Byzantine Style, built in the 6th century, containing paintings of the prophets and the disciples, Russian lamps in silver and gold, icons a marble sarcophagus containing the relics of the saint, the floor of the church is an Arab disigned mosaic of the marble.