Egypt's strategic Sinai Peninsula adopts tourism

Text and photos by Peter Hannemann

SYDNEY (JP): Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has been a place of refuge, conflict and curiosity for thousands of years.

Much of the Pharaohs' wealth came from the turquoise, copper and gold mines of the Sinai. It is the "great and terrible wilderness" of the bible across which the children of Israel journeyed in search of the Promised Land, and where Moses saw the Burning Bush and received the Ten Commandments.

This land bridge between Africa and Asia is another world to dhows plying the Nile, crowded Cairo, crumbling pyramids and an almost unrecognizable Sphinx, whose nose is missing because it was either shot off by Napoleon's soldiers during target practice or the British took it for the British Museum.

Sharm el Sheikh, squeezed between the rocky mass of the Sinai, the deep blue of the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Suez, is one of Egypt's recent tourist successes.

The exceptional strategic importance of its location enabled Israeli soldiers to advance this far during the six-day war, establishing the village of Sharm el Sheikh.

When under the 1979 Camp David agreement Israel returned Sinai to Egypt, the trenches and bunkers were destroyed and military buildings transformed into tourist residences.

It is still part of the Middle East political turbulence, with Egyptian president, and aspiring leader of the Arab world, Hosni Mubarak hosting a World Leaders Peacekeepers Summit, at the five- star beachfront Hilton hotel.

Among the besuited world leaders walking among scantily clad sunbaking tourists on the beach in 35 degree heat, shadowed by sweating well built men in badly cut suits talking into their lapels, were John Major, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. Clinton later joked he "was taken for a ride" after buying a jar of sand for twice what other "tourists" pay.

The Sinai coast has amazing underwater scenery. Just a few strokes from shore we entered a world where sheer cliffs are covered with hundreds of varieties of astonishingly shaped corals of pastel pink, vibrant yellow, royal purple and flaming red, alive with thousands of exotic fish.

From the coral, we climbed onto spirited Arabian horses waiting for us on the beach and galloped across the desert into wadis (dry river beds) winding between soaring mountains.

When I told the stables owner, an Omar Sharif look-alike, it was one of the best rides I have had, Egyptian-Australian relations were immediately cemented and brought forth the first of a number of peace pipes and glasses of strong Egyptian coffee.

Just four hours from Sharm el Sheikh, deep in the dramatic ethereal scenery of the Sinai, is St. Catherine's monastery.

Built in 530 AD, it is the oldest Christian monastery still in existence and houses the richest collection of icons and precious manuscripts outside the Vatican.

To get there we drove along wadis, through the occasional oases, across mountain tops, past camels and bedouins herding goats and sheep, and negotiated checkpoints deep in the heart of nowhere manned by AK47-toting guards because "Egypt is still nervous about Israel".

At the monastery, a boy wearing a back-to-front baseball cap greeted us. Even though he spoke no English, we had a brief spirited conversation with lots of pointing at a bush.

The most venerated of the monastery's 20 chapels is the Chapel of the Burning Bush where Moses saw the bush burning without being consumed and where God revealed Himself to Moses.

Outside the chapel is the Burning Bush. It is not burning, there is no ash lying on the ground, and it looks healthy.

Located at 1,570 metres above sea level, the monastery was named after St. Catherine. Born in Alexandria in 294 AD to a rich and noble family, she was baptized a Christian and named Dorothy. She was tortured but never denied her faith and was beheaded at 11 years old, becoming known as the virgin martyr.

At 2,642 metres, overshadowing the monastery, is Gebel Kathrina (mountain of St. Catherine), Egypt's highest mountain.

After leaving our bags at the monastery, and paying the boy with the baseball cap US$10 in baksheesh, we climbed for five hours through the night to the summit and camped next to the chapel where St. Catherine's body was supposedly found. As we greeted the sunrise, the view was without equal. Almost the entire Sinai was spread out like an enormous fan of valleys and mountains, from the Gulf of Suez to the Red Sea and across to Saudi Arabia.

Nearby is Mt. Sinai or Moses' Mountain where Jews, Moslems and Christians all believe Moses received the Tablets with the Ten Commandments from God.

On our return journey to Sharm el Sheikh, we stopped at a Bedouin bazaar high on the Sinai plateau. Three old women were selling beaded bracelets, stuffed toy camels, necklaces and other trinkets on a low wall running along the edge of a precipice. A persistent gaggle of children ran between us, demanding baksheesh to take their photos.

As we were leaving, one of the old women singled me out and tied a simple beaded bracelet on my arm. "She wants you to have it," said one of our Egyptian companions. "It's a gift." From the Sinai.