Egypt Guide
Sinai
The Sinai peninsula has been the gateway between Africa and Asia since time immemorial and a battleground for millennia. Prized for its strategic position and mineral wealth, Sinai is also revered by disparate cultures as the site of God's revelation to Moses, the wanderings of Exodus and the flight of the Holy Family. As Burton Bernstein wrote, "It has been touched, in one way or another by most of Western and Near Eastern history, both actual and mythic", being the supposed route by which the Israelites reached the Promised Land and Islam entered North Africa, then a theatre for Crusader-Muslim and Arab-Israeli conflicts, and finally transformed into an internationally monitored demilitarized zone.
Though mostly wilderness, Sinai looks far too dramatic – and too beautiful – to be dismissed as "24,000 square miles of nothing". The interior of southern Sinai is an arid moonscape of jagged ranges harbouring Mount Sinai and St Catherine's Monastery, where pilgrims climb the Steps of Repentance from the site of the Burning Bush to the summit where God delivered the Ten Commandments. Further north, the vast Wilderness of the Wanderings resembles a Jackson Pollock canvas streaked with colour and imprinted with tank tracks. The Sinai is also home to a remarkably high number of plants and wildlife; over sixty percent of Egypt's plant life thrives in this area, and 33 species are unique to it. Among a number of mammals that inhabit the region are the hyena, ibex and the rabbit-like hyrax. Venture into this "desert" on a camel trek or Jeep safari and you will also find remote springs and lush oases, providing some insights into Bedouin culture. Safaris can be organized at any of the resorts on the Aqaba coast.
Highlights
1 Reefs and wrecks Check out the infamous blue hole, or go wreck-diving round the Thistlegorm.
2 Ras Mohammed Egypt's first national park, sited at the tip of the Sinai peninsula, offers some world-class diving.
3 Na'ama Bay Egypt's premier resort, its bars and clubs teem with revellers by night.
4 Dahab Chill out in Asilah, renowned for its diving, laid-back beach cafés and cheap accommodation.
5 St Catherine's Monastery Built by Byzantine Empress Helena to commemorate the sight of the burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai.
6 Mount Sinai Climb the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments and see dawn break over the Sinai desert.