Overview

Sharm El Sheikh is an Egyptian tourist city, located at the convergence of the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez on the coast of the Red Sea. It covers an area of 480 km and is the largest city in the South Sinai Governorate. The city includes tourist resorts visited by visitors from around the world and is known as one of the world’s diving centers, attracting amateurs and professionals of this sport. Ras Church, Sharm El-Miya, Nakhlet El-Tabal, along with the Ras Mohammed Protectorate located in the south, Nabq Protectorate between Dahab and Naama Bay at the convergence of the continents of Asia and Africa, and it contains more than 200 hotels and resorts, in addition to restaurants, cafes, commercial markets, entertainment venues, nightclubs, and casinos.

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai, is a peninsula in Egypt and the only part of the country that lies in Asia. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south and is a land bridge between the Asian and African continents. Sinai has a land area of approximately 60,000 km². The Sinai Peninsula is divided into two governorates: the South Sinai Governorate and the North Sinai Governorate. However, North Sinai has been closed to everyone for several years. Three other governorates span the Suez Canal and extend into African Egypt: Suez Governorate to the south of the Suez Canal, Ismailia Governorate in the center, and Port Said Governorate in the north. In classical times, the region was known as Arabia Petraea. The peninsula was given the name Sinai in modern times due to the assumption that a mountain near the Saint Catherine Monastery is the biblical Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in the Abrahamic religions. The Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt since the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt around 3100 BCE. The southern part of the Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural environment, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Sinai is triangular in shape, with the northern coast on the southern Mediterranean Sea and the southwest and southeast coasts on the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. It is connected to the African continent by the Isthmus of Suez, a 125-kilometer-wide strip of land containing the Suez Canal. The eastern isthmus, which connects it to the Asian mainland, is approximately 200 kilometers wide. The eastern shore of the peninsula separates the Arabian Plate from the African Plate. The southernmost point is Ras Muhammad National Park. The largest city in Sinai is Arish, the capital of North Sinai. Formerly called Rhinocorura, Greek for “Cut-off Noses,” and the surrounding region were used by Ptolemaic Egypt as a place of exile for criminals. Other major settlements include Sharm el-Sheikh and El-Tor, on the south coast. The Sinai interior is arid, essentially a desert, mountainous, and sparsely populated, with the largest settlements being Saint Catherine and Nekhel. Sinai was called Mafkat “Land of Turquoise” by the ancient Egyptians. From the time of the First Dynasty or earlier, the Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai at Serabit El Khadim. The mine was used intermittently and seasonally for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have not been profitable. The fort of Tjaru in western Sinai was a place of exile for Egyptian criminals. The Way of Horus connected it through northern Sinai to ancient Canaan. From 521–486 BCE under Darius the Great, Sinai was part of the Persian province of Abar-Nahra, meaning ‘beyond the river,’ referring to the Euphrates River. Cambyses II succeeded in crossing the hostile Sinai Desert, traditionally Egypt’s first and strongest line of defense, and engaged the Egyptians under Psamtik III, son and successor of Ahmose, in battle at Pelusium. The Egyptians lost and retreated to Memphis; the city fell to Persian power, and the pharaoh was exiled to Susa in Persia. After the death of the last Nabatean king, Rabbel II Soter, in 106, Roman Emperor Trajan encountered practically no resistance and conquered the kingdom on March 22, 106. With this conquest, the Roman Empire gained control of all shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Sinai Peninsula became part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea.

Ayyubid Period

During the Crusades, it was under the control of the Fatimid Caliphate. Later, Sultan Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt and also took control of this region. It was the military route from Cairo to Damascus during the Crusades. To secure this route, he built a citadel on Pharaoh’s Island near present-day Taba, known by his name ‘Saladin’s Citadel.

Mamluk and Ottoman Periods

The peninsula was governed as part of Egypt under the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt from 1260 to 1517, when Ottoman Sultan Selim the Grim defeated the Egyptians in the battles of Marj Dabiq and al-Raydaniyya, and annexed Egypt to the Ottoman Empire. From then until 1906, Sinai was administered by the Ottoman provincial government of the Pashalik of Egypt, even after the establishment of Muhammad Ali’s dynasty’s rule over the rest of Egypt in 1805.

British Control

In 1906, the Ottoman Porte formally transferred the administration of Sinai to the Egyptian government, essentially placing it under the control of the United Kingdom, which had occupied and largely controlled Egypt since 1882. The border imposed by the British runs in an almost straight line from Rafah on the Mediterranean Sea to Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba. This line has since served as Egypt’s eastern border. On May 16, 1967, Egypt ordered the UN peacekeeping force (UNEF) to leave Sinai and reoccupied it militarily. Secretary-General U Thant eventually complied and ordered the withdrawal without permission from the Security Council. In the course of the Six-Day War that broke out shortly thereafter, Israel occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank including East Jerusalem from Jordan, which had been under Jordanian control since 1949, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The Suez Canal, whose eastern bank was now occupied by Israel, was closed. Israel began its efforts in the field of large-scale Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula.

After the Israeli conquest of Sinai, Egypt launched the War of Attrition (1967-70) aimed at forcing Israel to withdraw from Sinai. The war resulted in prolonged conflicts in the Suez Canal zone, ranging from limited to large-scale fighting. Israeli shelling of the cities of Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez on the western bank of the canal led to significant civilian casualties (including the virtual destruction of Suez) and contributed to the flight of 700,000 Egyptian internal refugees. Ultimately, the war ended in 1970 without a change in the front line. Border between Egypt and Israel, looking north from the Eilat Mountains. On October 6, 1973, Egypt launched Operation Badr to recapture Sinai, while Syria launched a simultaneous operation to recapture the Golan Heights, sparking the Yom Kippur War in Egypt and much of Europe known as the October War. Egyptian engineering troops built pontoon bridges to cross the Suez Canal and stormed the Bar-Lev Line, Israel’s defense line along the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. Although the Egyptians retained control of most of the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, in the later stages of the war, the Israeli army crossed the southern part of the Suez Canal, cut off the Egyptian 3rd Army, and occupied part of the Suez Canal. The western bank of the canal. The war ended after a mutually agreed ceasefire. After the war, as part of the subsequent Sinai Withdrawal Agreements, Israel withdrew from the immediate vicinity of the Suez Canal, with Egypt agreeing to allow the passage of Israeli ships. The canal was reopened in 1975, with President Sadat leading the first convoy through the canal aboard an Egyptian destroyer. In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in which Israel agreed to withdraw from the entire Sinai Peninsula. Israel then withdrew in several stages, ending in 1982. The Israeli withdrawal included the dismantling of almost all Israeli settlements, including the settlement of Yamit in the northeastern Sinai. The exception was the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which the Israelis had founded as Ofira during their occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, was not dismantled. The treaty allows for monitoring of Sinai by the Multinational Force and Observers and limits the number of Egyptian military forces on the peninsula. Since the early 2000s, Sinai has been the site of several terrorist attacks against tourists, most of whom are Egyptians. Research has shown that these attacks were mainly motivated by resentment over the poverty experienced by many Bedouins in the area. Attacking the tourist industry was seen as a method to inflict damage on the industry, so that the government would pay more attention to their situation. Since the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, there has been more unrest in the area, including the Egyptian-Israeli border attack in 2012 in which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants. Under President el-Sisi, Egypt has pursued a rigorous policy to control the border with the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of tunnels between Gaza and Sinai. The population of Sinai largely consists of desert-dwelling Bedouins with their colorful traditional costumes and significant culture. Large numbers of Egyptians from the Nile Valley and Delta migrated to the area to work in tourism, but development had a negative impact on the indigenous Bedouin population. To help alleviate their issues, various NGOs began operating in the region, including the Makhad Trust, a British charity that helps the Bedouins develop sustainable income while protecting the natural environment, heritage, and culture of Sinai. Since the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, the picturesque spots of Sinai, including coral reefs off the coast and religious structures, have become important for the tourism industry. The most popular tourist destinations in Sinai are Mount Sinai Jabal Musa and the Saint Catherine Monastery, considered the oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery in the world, and the resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, and Taba.