Homo Sum is a story of the cave-dweller called Paulus, based on the Chruch history of the Oasis of Pharan. The Pharan Oasis was the largest urban center of the Sinai Peninsula during the late Roman period. It was famous as the place of the Bishop of Sinai. German novelist Georg Ebers transports the readers to Mount Sinai with his incredible imagery in the novel. The scenes of this story, like his other works are set in Egypt during the time of the Roman emperor, Hadrian. Excerpt from Homo Sum "Rocks-naked, hard, red-brown rocks all round; not a bush, not a blade, not a clinging moss such as elsewhere nature has lightly flung on the rocky surface of the heights, as if a breath of her creative life had softly touched the barren stone. Nothing but smooth granite, and above it a sky as bare of cloud as the rocks are of shrubs and herbs."