On which side of the horizon is the Sinai Peninsula located? Sinai Knot: who controls the troubled peninsula. Egypt - Jordan
It is considered the most important strategic part of the Egyptian state. It is given great importance in history and culture on a global scale.
Location of the Sinai Peninsula (At-Tih)
Sinai resembles a wedge shape, which is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba. The main part (Et-Tikh plateau) of the Sinai Peninsula is deserted. The highest point of the desert is Mount St. Catherine (2637 m). To the east of the territory where the desert of the Sinai Peninsula is located, there is
Natural and climatic characteristics of the peninsula
Sinai is translated as “rocky.” This name is also reflected in the character of the area. The Sinai Desert consists of endless sand, bizarre mountains, rocks, valleys, sinkholes and canyons.
Precipitation in this endless desert does not exceed 100 mm. They mainly seep through the sand, which is reflected in the small distance of groundwater from the surface (several meters).
The Sinai Desert is part of the Arabian floristic region, which determines the nature of the local flora. The rocky plateau of At Tih is largely devoid of vegetation. Sometimes in the beds of the wadi you can find plants such as anabasis, barnyard grass, and spiny zilla.
On the western and northern parts On the Sinai Peninsula there are sandy ergs where you can find retam shrubs, aristidas, and oats. On the rocky part of this territory, winged ephedra, thymelea pilosa and wormwood are sometimes found. Acacias and tamarisk grow on the bottom of the wadi, which produces sweet sap. Among the endless sandy massifs you can find lakes and swamps.
The fauna of the Sinai Desert is represented by small rodents (called gerbils), which dig holes and form colonies. There are also jerboas, common gazelle, Nubian goat, fennec and other animals. Most recently, a large jackal, which usually lives in northern Africa, was discovered here.
Birds here are represented mainly by the passerine family. In the wadi beds these are, for example, wheatears, larks, and desert sparrows. In mountainous areas there are chickens, crows, golden eagles and vultures.
Sinai Desert: Description of an Environmental Problem
Due to the fact that the Sinai Peninsula is experiencing a huge influx of tourists, the rapid development of industry and urban construction, the ecology of Sinai is in serious danger: a huge number sea corals are dying. This is due to the fact that the temperature begins to rise critically, the corals become clogged with sand. And sad as it may be, the environmental situation was affected by the massive vandalism of tourists who break off “pieces of Egypt” - corals - as souvenirs. The state authorities have taken strict measures to suppress such actions on the part of travelers: a fine of $100 has been introduced for damaging corals.
Sinai Desert: first world fame
In history, Sinai gained worldwide fame thanks to the Mount of Moses, which is of great importance for Christians. God came down here to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments. To this day it is unknown where this mountain of the same name is located. The Bible gives it various names. From the 4th century Mount Sinai is considered to be Mount Moses, near the base of which a monastery dedicated to St. Catherine was erected.
Traditions: yesterday and today
The Sinai Desert has long been especially revered in the Egyptian state; its history has deep roots. Numerous traditional rituals have been preserved to this day, in which even tourists can participate. But new ones have also appeared, for example, you can take part in climbing Mount Moses at night to watch the sunrise at its top. This ceremony appeared relatively recently. It is associated with the peak influx of tourists to Egypt. They get to the top of the mountain at night along a long path, when the sun's rays are not yet shining, and descend in the morning along a short path. In the 17th century Wallachian boyar Mihai Catacuzino even built a monastery in Russia called “Sinai” after he visited the monastery of St. Catherine.
More than 5 thousand years ago, the Egyptians mastered the territory of the Sinai Peninsula, where many monuments from various eras of historical significance have been preserved. A significant fact in the history of Sinai is that in 1979 a peace treaty was concluded between the Egyptian and Israeli states, according to which the Sinai was returned to Egypt.
Riddle of the Bedouins
For many, the Sinai Desert is associated with a lifeless and dull area, where small oases are occasionally found. This is the common image of this territory for most people. Here all living things fight for their right to exist. But here a curious paradox arises - if the average life span in many countries is approximately sixty years, then for the Bedouins living in the desert it is eighty years. Thus, the Bedouin way of life was completely adapted to the desert habitat. But there are no people willing to settle in desert areas.
Origin of names
For example, the term “oasis” comes from the Greek word Uasis, which in turn comes from the Egyptian word Uit, which refers to the name of several Egyptian settlements in the middle reaches of the Nile. That is, the term “oasis” was used by the Egyptians to designate an area located in the middle of the desert, which has favorable conditions for life.
With the interpretation of the desert, everything is clearer than clear - it is empty and it is empty. This is where the question arises that this word is of Slavic origin, because it means empty space. Then what was the name of the desert itself? local population? The Arabs gave the desert a name that means a place where there is no one but Allah. And one proverb among the Arabs says that the desert is God’s garden, from where he removed all people in order to be alone with himself.
A little about the Bedouins of the Sinai Desert
At the moment, the Bedouins also live in tents, which can easily be folded and loaded onto camels in order to continue to wander further along the endless sands, since the area of the Sinai desert allows this. According to recently updated data, its area is almost 61 thousand km 2. From north to south its length reaches 370 km, and from east to west it stretches 210 km. Sometimes the permanent structures found are referred to as “tourist infrastructure”. And the Bedouins themselves are not averse to making money from travelers. Many of them can even be seen in stock mobile phone, but they are not yet ready for a radical change in their lifestyle. The most important source of income for the Bedouins is, of course, camels, which can be used to give rides to travelers.
Bedouins use it for drinking sea water in desalinated form, which is not of very high quality. This led to the fact that recently they were almost the only indigenous inhabitants of this vast desert area. At the moment, native townspeople are very rare in Sharm el-Sheikh. People who came here to work mainly live here.
What attracts tourists to the Sinai Desert?
Of course, people accustomed to forests, fields and rivers are attracted here by the exotic desert terrain and its mysterious oases. The Sinai desert is full of numerous mysteries that have yet to be solved. She has these Beautiful places, saturated bright colors, which sometimes dazzles the eyes. Tourists do not put away their cameras for a second, as gorgeous landscapes appear before their eyes. Along the way, they encounter scattered Bedouin camps where they can ride camels. Of course, in some places the road is very dangerous, but this only makes the trip to the Sinai Desert more colorful.
In the West. From the north it is limited by the Mediterranean Sea. The peninsula does not have exact boundaries, so different sources estimate its area differently.
Most of Sinai is covered by deserts. Only in the north along sandy beaches Mediterranean coast olive groves stretched out. In the northeast of the peninsula is Lake Bardawil, separated from the Mediterranean Sea only by a narrow spit. The lake is home to exotic fish species. The south of the peninsula is completely covered with mountains of volcanic origin. The highest point is Mount St. Catherine (Jebel Catherine) with a height of 2602 m. You can swim on the coast along the southern tip of the peninsula even in winter; V last years Many hotels and beaches appeared there. Unfortunately, the development of tourism is accompanied by pollution of the coast, so in recent years scientists are increasingly talking about environmental disaster peninsula. However, the inability to generate income from tourism has led to the fact that Sinai has long been a bone of contention for Egypt and Israel. Oil deposits have been discovered on the peninsula; in addition, despite the desert climate, some parts of the peninsula are suitable for habitation. Already today, the land around individual oasis towns is being cultivated. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel completely occupied the peninsula. Then, after the 1973 war, Israel announced its readiness to gradually withdraw troops and return the peninsula to Egypt. The reason for this step was not only the partial military success of the Egyptians, but also a political calculation: Israel had already relied on peaceful coexistence with its western neighbor. Today, the entire territory of Sinai, with the exception of one part of the desert, is administered by Egypt. However, the Cairo government has so far failed to create favorable conditions for residents from the overpopulated river valley to move here.
The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were the first to organize gold and copper mining on the Sinai Peninsula. Their envoys looked even more persistently for the blue semi-precious stone, thanks to which the Egyptians called Sinai “the land of turquoise.”
Land of Moses
According to the Bible, the Israelites, leaving Egypt, crossed the western deserts of Sinai through the fertile lands of the Wadi Feran oasis, and then headed east deep into the peninsula. This route poses a question to historians: why did the people of Moses never meet the Egyptians in Sinai, who at that time were intensively mining deposits of turquoise, gold and copper ores here? Although the biblical narrative corresponds to the geographical realities of the Sinai Peninsula, it still cannot be ruled out that it contains a number of errors. It is quite possible that the Israelis, moving east, stopped only in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. In the Hebrew sources describing the Exodus, the body of water that the children of Israel “crossed” is called Yam Suf (“Sea of Reeds”). Perhaps the translator, who decided that the Red Sea was meant, was simply mistaken. It is more likely that Yam Suf is the Sirbonis lagoon, which today is called Lake Bardawil. If this assumption is correct, then the transfer of the tablets with the 10 commandments and the conclusion
The covenant between God, called Yahweh in the books of the Old Testament, and his “chosen people” took place not in the south of Sinai, on the mountain later called Moses, but in the north of the peninsula. Perhaps this happened on Mount Hillal, which rises 892 m above the surrounding plain. It is no longer possible to establish this precisely, since it has been repeatedly translated into various languages The Bible contains many mistakes made by translators, which often leads to confusion in geographical names.
general information
The territory of Sinai is divided into two administrative districts: North and South Sinai.Language: Arabic.
Currency: Egyptian pound.
Religion: Islam.
Largest cities: El-Arish, At-Tour, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba.
Main Mountain peaks:
Jebel Catherine, Jebel Musa, Jebel Sirbal.
International Airport: Sharm el-Sheikh.
Numbers
Area: depending on the assessment methodology, different sources give figures from 25 thousand to 61 thousand km 2.Length: from north to south 370 km, from east to west: 220 km.
Population: about 200 thousand, mostly Bedouins leading a semi-sedentary lifestyle.
REGIONAL ECONOMY
Animal husbandry.Extraction of manganese and oil.
Tourism.
Climate and weather
January temperature from +20ºС; July up to +35ºС.Attractions
■ Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine, where there is a unique repository of manuscripts and a collection of ancient icons made using the technique of wax painting.■Mountain of Moses.
■ Wadi Feran Oasis.
■ The cities of Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh.
■ National Park Ras Muhammad where to see undersea world coral reefs.
■ Turkish fortress in El Arish.
Curious facts
■ The water of the Red Sea off the coast of Sinai is so clear that visibility is more than 30 m.■ The Suez Canal was built between 1859 and 1869. Since then, ships coming from Atlantic Ocean to the Indian, pass through the Red Sea, avoiding the long and risky voyage around the cape Good Hope.
■ Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956 led to the first Egyptian-Israeli War.
■ Deposits of copper, gold and semi-precious stones on the Sinai Peninsula, known since ancient times, are almost exhausted.
The Sinai Peninsula is a separate geographical unit and lies between two continents - Africa and Eurasia, being separated from the first by the Gulf of Suez, and from the second by the Gulf of Eilat or Aqaba. An almost equilateral triangle is connected by land to both continents, with the exception of the man-made Suez Canal, the construction of which began in 1859. The area of Sinai is 61,000 square kilometers, the coast of the Gulf of Eilat and Suez is just over 300 kilometers each, the coast of the Mediterranean Sea is just over 200. Climatically, it is a mountainous desert zone, with very few water sources and precipitation not exceeding 20 - 40 millimeters per year, with the exception of its Mediterranean coast.
The northern part of Sinai is, for the most part, sand dunes, and the southern one is mountainous, the most high mountains The peninsulas are located in the center of its southern part. The highest point of the area is Mount Moses (Sinai), which rises 2,600 meters above sea level. The flora is quite poor, but the same cannot be said about the diverse animal life; the flora and fauna of Sinai are typically desert. Natural landscapes they are beautiful and unusual here, especially for those who love the desert - it’s not for nothing that one of the valleys here is called the Moon (it is clearly visible from the Israeli side from the observation point of Mount Hizkiyahu).
There were almost never settled settlements on the Sinai Peninsula, only nomadic tribes of Bedouins, whose way of life has not changed for many millennia. In ancient times, Sinai was an independent zone within the sphere of interests of ancient egypt. During the time of King Solomon (10th century BC) it was completely or partially controlled by Jews. In all other historical periods it was part, subordinate or independent, of the rulers of Cairo and Alexandria. In Hellenistic times, on the Mediterranean coast of Sinai stood greek city- the port of Rinokorura, the name of which translates as “torn nose”, since mainly convicts lived and worked here. Now the Egyptian city of El-Arish stands on this site.
Many conquerors passed through the peninsula - Muslims, Byzantines and Crusaders. The sands of Sinai remember Napoleon, who passed through it north coast in 1799 during the Egyptian Campaign. Since the 13th century, it belonged first to the Mamelukes and then to the Turkish Ottoman Empire, until the peninsula was captured by British troops in 1917 during the First World War.
After the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, the territory of the Sinai Peninsula began to serve as a base for the Egyptian army and a springboard for terrorists who constantly violated the borders of the newly formed state of Israel. Since the Egyptian army also actively participated in attacks on Israel, for the purpose of self-defense, in 1955 - 1956 the Israeli army carried out the so-called Sinai campaign or Operation Kadesh, as a result of which the peninsula ended up in the hands of Israel, which retreated to its own in 1957 old borders.
However, Egypt again used the Sinai as a springboard to prepare for war, and in 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Israeli army re-entered the peninsula. At the end of this war, Israel decided not to return Sinai to Egypt and Jewish settlements began to be built here. By the end of the 70s, there were more than a dozen settlements and the city of Yamit in Sinai. The peninsula also became a theater of active combat during the Yom Kippur War, when it served the Israeli army well as a staging area and military base.
As a result of the progressive President Anwar Sadat coming to power in Egypt, in 1980 part of the territory was transferred by Israel to Egypt, and in 1982, as a result of the treaties concluded at Camp David between Sadat and Menachem Begin, the Prime Minister of Israel, the entire Sinai Peninsula was again came under the jurisdiction of Egypt and all Jewish settlements here were destroyed. In 1989, Israel transferred to Egypt the last 8-kilometer stretch of the Red Sea coast near the village of Taba. Under the Camp David Treaties, Sinai became a partially visa-free zone. Now anyone who has a foreign passport of any country, directly at the checkpoint, having paid a relatively small amount, receives a visa for 14 days, allowing them to travel along the Eilat coast of Sinai to its very southern point or go deeper into the peninsula to Mount Sinai and the monastery of Santa Caterina.
Today there are three resorts founded during the times when the Sinai Peninsula 
belonged to Israel - Nueiba, Dahab and Sharm al-Sheikh. Perhaps the most developed and civilized is Sharm al-Sheikh, located at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. Nueiba is an hour's drive from the Taba border crossing, Dahab is two and a half hours, and Sharm al-Sheikh is about 4 hours' drive. Here you can travel in your own car, having paid for its transportation across the border, or in Bedouin taxis, which are old and do not have air conditioning, or in regular buses, also do not have air conditioning and are used quite rarely. Today, almost any currency is freely accepted here, including shekels, and many local Bedouins speak Hebrew or, much worse, English.
In the northernmost part of the Eilat coast of Sinai, 8 kilometers from the Israeli border, there is also the Island of the Pharaohs - Jezirat Pharaoh with the reconstructed Saladin fortress of the 12th century on it. This island consists mainly of corals, which is why its second name is Coral Island. It is located just a few hundred meters from the coast and can be reached by paying a few local pounds to a ferryman. There is a beautiful fjord not far between the island and the border.
The most interesting and attractive point of the Sinai Peninsula is Mount Sinai, also known as Mount Moses, on which the Teacher Moses received stone tablets with the Ten Commandments and the text of the Torah (Mosaic Pentateuch) from which the entire Jewish religious tradition comes (Exodus 19-34).
The modern definition of Mount Sinai, after which, in fact, the entire peninsula is named, is Christian and was made in Byzantine times and is not accepted by Jewish tradition. Here, at the foot of the mountain, as only the Christian tradition believes, the story of the burning bush that Moses saw (Exodus 3:2) and the extraction of water from the rock (Exodus 17:6) took place. Travelers and pilgrims usually climb Mount Sinai at night to see the stunning sunrise from the peninsula's highest point. The climb along a good trail takes 4-5 hours, but part of the way up you can ride on Bedouin camels, of course for a fee.
At the top of the mountain there is a small abandoned chapel, local Bedouins brew coffee and tea and offer various souvenirs. At the foot of the mountain stands one of the most beautiful monasteries in the world - Santa Caterina, which can also be entered at certain hours. Monastery of Santa Caterina , the smallest diocese in the world and at the same time one of the oldest Christian operating monasteries, has the richest collection icons and priceless manuscripts We can find the first mention of the monastery in the chronicles of the Patriarch of Alexandria Eutyches, who lived in the 9th century. The chronicles report that Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, was so impressed by the holiness of these places that in 330 she ordered the installation of a small chapel on the site of the burning thorn bush and dedicated it to St. Virgin Mary.
Over the following years, on the one hand, the ever-growing attention of Christianity to the monastery brought it enrichment due to increasingly numerous donations from clergy, on the other hand, this led to a number of raids and murders by nomadic tribes of the desert. These bloody raids on monks and hermits continued until the 6th century, when Emperor Justinian ordered the erection of a much larger basilica in 530, which became the Church of the Transfiguration. This was immediately after the monastery acquired the appearance of a massive fortress, which characterizes it even today. In order to protect the monks from possible invasions, Justinian actually built a real fort around the church. In 640, after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, the monastery became a stronghold of Christianity in the boundless world of Islam.
According to tradition, Muhammad personally bestowed his patronage on a delegation of monks who went to see the prophet. A copy of the document certifying this protection can still be seen in the monastery today. In 726, due to the growing wave of iconoclasm in Orthodoxy, Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of all images in Christian communities. Due to its considerable remoteness, the monastery of Santa Caterina was the only one that managed to keep its huge, priceless artistic patrimony intact. Peace and stability continued to reign in the monastery even during the turbulent Crusader period. The war for the liberation of the holy places contributed to the visit of the monastery by important people: Henry II of Brunswick, Philip of Artois, as well as Duke Albert of Austria. Over the following centuries, the monastery witnessed the arrival of travelers attracted by the charm of the biblical landscapes, who without fear faced numerous dangers and inconveniences on the way to this country. The bravest ones risked climbing the holy mountains. These first tourists came from almost every country in Europe: English, French, German, Dutch, and they left their names on the walls of buildings.
During Napoleon's brief adventure in Egypt, the scholars who accompanied his army and described the Sinai were mostly French. Subsequently, this led to an ever-increasing number of travelers, primarily artists and writers from France. The 19th century brought with it, among other things, a new understanding of travel, and tourism in the modern sense began to be a 
saying: whoever went to the Holy Land had to include a visit to Sinai and Santa Caterina in his route. Tourist development this zone continues to this day. Nowadays, the construction of convenient asphalt roads, the construction of well-equipped hotels and, later, a small airport have led to more and more tourist groups choosing this remote place, untouched by the modern world, as their travel destination. To this day, the monastery belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, and most of the monks who live here are Greeks, here they are guided by the rule that was established by St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, who lived in 329-379.
The abbot of the monastery is elected by four archimandrites and confirmed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is one of the six ecumenical (ecumenical) Orthodox patriarchs (Rome, Moscow, Alexandria, Constantinople and Antioch). Like the Archbishop of Sinai, the abbot dons a miter and crown and carries a scepter and a golden cross. The monastery is open from 9:00 to 12:00 except Friday, Sunday and Christian holidays Orthodox holidays. People are allowed inside only in modest clothing, under no circumstances shorts; shoulders and legs must be covered.
Last week, we and a small group of sisters of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, with Fr. Leonty and our workers visited the monastery of St. Vmch. Catherine and served the Liturgy on the top of the mountain of the prophet Moses - on Mount Sinai.
The first series of photos is our path to the holy mountain. The roads of mountains and deserts are the most enchanting journey. (a lot of photos - more than 70)
It was my first time in Sinai and in Egypt in general, so I was interested to see what everything looked like along the way. The path turned out to be not very close. At 4:30 we left Tel Aviv, at 5:30 we transferred to our pilgrimage bus in Jerusalem, which took us to the border with Egypt in the southernmost Israeli city of Eilat. We had to wait at the border for some time. The day before in Egypt, on the way to the monastery of St. Catherine's road was washed away, the rainy season began. The first washout seemed to have been eliminated by the morning, but this morning a mudflow occurred in another place and work was underway to eliminate it. Luckily we didn't have to wait long. The Israeli border was crossed well, but there was a hitch on the Egyptian side. There were no people - the season was over, but in our group there were 2 workers with Moldovan passports, and they needed some kind of special visa, which is not issued at the border. We waited almost 3 hours. In general, we were ready to leave at about 13:00 (though it was still hour difference in time).
And off we went - from the border of Israel to Mount Sinai 220 km. High-speed Egyptian minibuses for tourists cover this distance in 2 hours (well, maybe a little more). We stopped once along the way. But along the entire road for another 200 km, there are as many as 12 checkpoints, sometimes they check documents, sometimes they just look, sign some kind of piece of paper for the driver, like a permit. This is the fight against ISIS, not far from here the other day there was a battle and up to 50 ISIS militants were killed on the Israeli border (aka Daesh in Arabic)
This is also a stopover on the way to Israel. Sapir station in the Arava desert
Eilat - the Red Sea splashes at the border, mountains to the right - this is Jordan
Israeli-Egyptian border, crossed it on foot
Mizraim in Hebrew, Egypt in all other languages
it’s not the season, there are no tourists, there is no officer in the booth, he also had to wait quite a while
While our Egyptian buses are waiting for us, we have a snack, since we probably took provisions for a month of travel.
m. Feodosia is already starting to film a report for the RDM website
the first Egyptian city on the way is Taba. There are luxurious hotels (as they say), equally luxurious diving among coral reefs and some completely shabby village, it feels like it’s half empty. And along the entire coast, as we drove to Nuweiba, and maybe the same thing continues to Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh: complete unfinished and abandoned buildings, a new road is being built, but in some places there is almost no road. A feeling of great desolation. But maybe it's just not the season...
first Bedouin village
Interesting - stop at a Korean-Chinese Arabic cafe. We didn’t try the cuisine, we drank water and tea.
one of the checkpoints.
(all other photos were taken on Fuji XT-1 with 16-55mm and 50-140mm lenses)
The thing is that we had to film through the glass of our minibus; the glass had not been washed there for probably six months, and in general filming through the glass of a car with bumps and unnecessary reflections is evil. But there was no way out, so I apologize in advance for the low-quality photo. But without unnecessary sentimentality, the Sinai deserts are incomparable. If you believe the geological review, then the mountains of South Sinai, and with them Mount Moses, belong to the oldest terrestrial Precambrian rocks of volcanic origin. So to speak, from the very creation of the world. They are different in appearance from anything we know. In the next report on climbing Mount Sinai, you will see this for yourself.
But for now the path to Sinai is through Sinai.
in the Nuweiba area - a mudflow blocked the road, but it’s already possible to drive through
the valley from which the stream came
the roads are empty, which allows minibus drivers to drive as they please
Bedouin villages
very diverse desert of South Sinai
I don’t know the names of the mountains and valleys - I’d have to somehow detailed map see everything
don't see the camel? but he is, and not alone
light and darkness
and this is the second flood - just yesterday, at this time it is already completely safe
this relief reminded me of the recent photographs of the New Horizons spacecraft, which it took while flying past Pluto, only there are no bushes there, of course
streams have flooded the desert - after all, October is already ending, and there have been no good rains yet
desert boats
the closer to the mon. St. Catherine, the harsher the earthly space
Almost arrived. These are the rules - do you go alone or with a group - take a Bedouin guide, this is how jobs are created
Bedouin market near the monastery of St. Catherine
everything is elegant, Bedouin
penultimate checkpoint in front of the monastery
the grave of the prophet Harun (Muslim) - in our opinion this means Aaron
green is not grass - these are minerals
sand streams
and a few people of the desert, which is how the word “Bedouin” is actually translated
the children are wonderful, but from an early age they are trained to beg, sweets are understandable, but begging for money seems too much, the key words in the dictionary are “caramel, van dollar, van yuro”
Sinai peninsula(Arabic: شبه جزيرة سيناء , Sina; Hebrew סיני) is a peninsula in the Red Sea, on the border between Asia and Africa, part of the territory of Egypt. Territorially belongs to Asia.
Geography
The peninsula, shaped like a wedge, pointed to the south, is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean coast or by a line connecting the northern ends of the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba; from the west - the Gulf of Suez, from the east - the Gulf of Aqaba. Since the boundaries of the peninsula are arbitrary, its territory, depending on the determination method, is estimated to range from 25 thousand to 61 thousand km². The territory is mainly occupied by desert; there are mountains closer to the south (the most high point this is Mount St. Catherine, 2637 m) and plateau. Oil fields have been discovered on the peninsula, and turquoise has also traditionally been mined.
Climate
The climate of almost the entire Sinai Peninsula is tropical desert, with the exception of the northern part adjacent to Mediterranean Sea where the Mediterranean climate is typical. The climate is very arid everywhere, especially the south of the peninsula, which is closed by mountains from the arrival of rare cyclones from the north, and where in some years there is no precipitation at all, and on average only a few millimeters fall per year, as in Sharm el-Sheikh. Summer temperatures are very high, usually reaching +40 °C or more in the shade, winter temperatures are lower, and night frosts are not uncommon in deserts. The south of the peninsula, heated by the Red Sea, has the warmest winters.
Story
Egyptian-Israeli border north of Eilat (Egypt on the left, Israel on the right)
The land of the peninsula was developed by the ancient Egyptians back in