Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula, a triangular landform linking Africa
and Asia, has an area of about 60,710 sq km. It lies between
the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal on the west, the Gulf
of Aqaba and the Negev desert on the east, the Mediterranean
Sea on the north, and the Red Sea on the south. Mount
Sinai is renowned as the principal site of divine revelation
in Jewish history, where God appeared to Moses and gave
him the Ten Commandments. It is also sacred in both Christian
and Islamic tradition.
Is Jebel Musa the correct Mt. Sinai?
The peninsula's
southern region is a complex of high mountains made up
of igneous rocks. Egypt's highest point, Jebel Katherina,
reaches 2,638metres. Deep seasonal watercourses drain
toward the Gulf of Aqaba or the Gulf of Suez. The northern
region, forming two thirds of Sinai, is a great plateau
sloping towards the Mediterranean. It is characterized
by an extensive plain, a number of island like massifs,
and broad coastal plains with extensive sand dunes.
The desert climate has an
average annual rainfall of less than 25cms. About
one fourth of the total rainfall percolates to groundwater
reservoirs, providing excellent opportunities for
water conservation., Summers are dry and intensely
hot. Winters are variable with about 12.5 cm of
rainfall. The higher mountain peaks are covered
with ice or snow in the winter. Natural vegetation
is sparse, and consists largely of medicinal and
fodder plants and shrubs. Wildlife is rare.
The scanty population
is mostly concentrated in the northern fringe, where
water supplies are adequate, and in the western
fringe, where petroleum and manganese industries
have been developed. The settled population is engaged
in agriculture and land reclamation and in the petroleum,
mining, and fishing industries. The wandering Bedouin tribes, of Arab origin, migrate with the changing
availability of water and pasture. Agricultural
activities include the grazing of livestock and
the cultivation of barley, melons, and olives. Date
palm groves are widely distributed. Irrigation is
practiced in deltaic areas with water pumped from
underground sources. Petroleum was first discovered
in 1910 in western Sinai. Other minerals include
manganese, glass sand, coal, copper, phosphates,
iron and uranium.
The earliest written
reference to Sinai dates from 3000BC. The name Sinai
may have been derived from the original name of
one of the oldest Near Eastern religious cults,
that of the moon god sin. The Monastery of St.
Catherine, which was founded in the AD 527 at the
base of Mount Sinai, is probably the world's oldest
continuously inhabited Christian monastery. A community
of Eastern Orthodox Christian monks still reside
there.
The Sinai
peninsula has been an integral part of Egypt since
the third millenium BC. It has stayed so through
time even when Egypt lost its independence in the
3rd Century BC until it regained it in the 20th
Century AD.
