To reflect on the formation of landscapes in late antiquity, it is useful to start with mindscapes — the terrain of dreams and of dialogues beyond the limits of time and space. This chapter argues that within a specific Christian context, these mental visions generated topographical discourses that elevated designated localities out of their present and into a biblical past. Dreams gave a prefiguration and a legitimacy to all territorial expansion. The rise of the southern Sinai and of the summit of Jebel Musa to the rank of a holy mountain created a locus of sanctity with two categories of citizens — monks and pilgrims — and a third of non-citizens, the ‘Saracens’. An intense religious life and a dynamic relationship with nature and nomads dominated a search for sanctity and a desire to experience the Bible in a manner unmediated by layers of more recent history.
Keywords: mindscapes, Judaism, Christianity, Sinai, Jews, Jebel Musa, monks, pilgrims, Saracens