Until May 28, relations between Greece and Egypt appeared as solid as the granite cliffs surrounding the ancient Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. Just three weeks earlier, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had traveled to Athens – his fifth visit since assuming power in 2014. The summit was lauded as a diplomatic triumph. Both governments signed a raft of bilateral agreements, and the Greek capital hosted the inaugural session of a newly established High-Level Cooperation Council.
El-Sisi, standing beside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, described the new council as a “milestone and qualitative leap” in bilateral relations. Energy cooperation was high on the agenda, particularly a flagship project: an undersea cable that would channel solar and wind power from Egypt to Europe via Greece. The European Union, eager for green energy partnerships with third countries, pledged financial support. Greece, positioning itself as a geopolitical bridge, also voiced readiness to mediate Egypt’s broader European cooperation. “Greece is a steadfast ally of Egypt – even in your country’s relations with the EU,” Mitsotakis assured his visibly pleased guest.
At the press conference’s close, a delicate issue surfaced: the status of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, a sixth-century Orthodox Christian site located in southern Sinai. President El-Sisi dismissed rumors that Egyptian policy posed any threat to the monastery, emphasizing his government’s religious tolerance: “Were there Jewish citizens, we would have built synagogues.” Addressing the monastery directly, he declared, “I will not allow malicious rumors to tarnish our good relations with Greece.”
Shock from Ismailia
Against this backdrop, the ruling issued on May 28 by the Court of Appeals in Ismailia landed like a thunderclap – both for the small Orthodox monastic community at Sinai and for the Greek public and the Greek government, which sees itself as a guardian of global Orthodoxy. The Catholic news outlet Omnes carried the stark headline: “Egypt expropriates St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai after 15 centuries of autonomy”. The article continued: “With this expropriation, not only is a thousand-year-old tradition of monastic autonomy broken, but a far-reaching diplomatic and ecclesial wound is reopened. The future of St. Catherine, the spiritual jewel of Eastern Christianity, is now in question.”
In Greece, the verdict provoked a firestorm. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens responded swiftly: “I cannot and will not believe that Hellenism and Orthodoxy are suffering yet another historical conquest.” His use of the Greek word álosi – evocative of the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople – imbued the statement with dramatic weight.
The political fallout was immediate. Opposition parties accused the Greek government of diplomatic failure and declared the monastery’s fate a “matter of national importance.” For days, the issue dominated headlines and broadcast panels. Yet a crucial detail was often overlooked: the full 160-page court ruling had not been made publicly available.
A statement from the Egyptian presidency sought to calm tensions – but instead confirmed the monks’ worst fears. While affirming their usage rights to the monastery and its sacred sites, the communiqué unequivocally stated that ownership remains with the Egyptian state. Few formulations could express an expropriation more plainly.
At the heart of this now bilateral dispute lies a fundamental question: Who owns the land and ancient structures – including priceless religious artifacts – that the monastic community has considered its own since time immemorial?
For centuries, this was no point of contention. Now, however, the Egyptian state is challenging the community’s historic standing. The monks assert their claim based on more than 1,500 years of customary law. The flaw in that argument: Egypt’s land registry, the official cadastre, apparently contains no documentation of such claims.
A Monastery vs. a Mega Project
According to media reports, the monastery asserts ownership of 71 properties. As early as 2015, the governorate of South Sinai initiated legal proceedings to dispute this claim, including ownership of the monastery itself and 40 agricultural plots. The plaintiffs argue that the monastery has no legal personality under Egyptian law – and thus cannot hold property. This legal limbo is the monastic community’s Achilles’ heel.
St. Catherine the highest mountains in the biblical land of Sinai, overlooking a 1,450-years old monastery in 1985, where a Greek Ortodox monk has lived in solitude for 20 years. St. Catherine ran along the red sea coast. Tens of thousand tourists across the world annual visit the place. Attracted by handful of historic monasteries and nunneries scattered around the Sinais Craggy Mountains and deep valley, close to Mount Sinai where the bible says god handed Moses the 10 commandments. From the third century, Christians monks and nuns fled religious persecution and came to the Sinai the monastery was built in 532 AD. By the Byzantine emperor Justinian to keep out marauding nomads the only entrance was basket lowered down its wall. (AP Photo/Paola Crociani)
Throughout the prolonged legal battle, both sides intermittently pursued an out-of-court resolution. By late 2024, a compromise seemed within reach. In early June, the Athens-based Kathimerini newspaper published a document entitled “Agreement and Settlement Contract,” in which both parties pledged to withdraw all mutual lawsuits and establish joint stewardship through a newly created legal entity. But the final signature never came. The Egyptian side declined to ratify the accord.
A key figure in this evolving drama is Archbishop Damianos, the 91-year-old abbot of the monastery. “I hold President El-Sisi in high esteem,” he said in an interview. “But many of his subordinates either don’t understand him – or don’t want to.” Some observers suggest that hardline elements within Egypt’s so-called “deep state” may be behind the impasse, acting beyond the president’s control.
Yet a more plausible explanation may lie in real estate, not religion. The area around the monastery sits at the center of Egypt’s ambitious “Great Transfiguration Project,” which aims to transform the region into a sustainable international tourism hub complete with eco-lodges, mountain hotels, and cable cars. For state planners, this is a vision of modernization. For the monks, it spells upheaval – and an uncertain future.
Before investors and bulldozers can proceed, the land’s ownership must be clarified. That, more than legal semantics, likely explains the timing and tone of the Ismailia court’s ruling.
In an attempt to defuse tensions, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Greece met in Cairo on June 4. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reiterated Egypt’s “full commitment to preserving the religious and sacred character of the monastery” and framed the court ruling as protective of the site’s spiritual and archaeological heritage. He emphasized that the ruling maintains the monks’ ability to “benefit from” the monastery and surrounding areas, while reaffirming Egypt’s historic values of religious tolerance. His Greek counterpart, Georgios Gerapetritis, acknowledged the issue’s sensitivity and stressed that both sides had agreed to work promptly toward securing the monastery’s rights and clarifying its legal status. Whether diplomacy can reconcile heritage with development remains an open question.
Meanwhile, the monastic community – now reduced to just 20 brothers – is mounting what resistance it can. In a symbolic act of protest, they have closed the monastery to visitors. Yet their struggle evokes the pathos of a battle against windmills. As Giorgis Manginis, academic director of the Benaki Museum in Athens, noted: “The greatest tension in the monastery for years has been between monastic life and tourism. Sometimes you see real hordes of tourists – as if you were at the Acropolis.”
His verdict is sobering: “It is a battle we are losing.”
Dr. Ronald Meinardus is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).
