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Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (/ˈsn/ SY-ny; Arabic: سِينَاء; Egyptian Arabic: سينا; Coptic: Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Africa. Sinai has a land area of about 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) (6 percent of Egypt's total area) and a population of approximately 600,000 people.[1] Administratively, the vast majority of the area of the Sinai Peninsula is divided into two governorates: the South Sinai Governorate and the North Sinai Governorate. Three other governorates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt: Suez Governorate on the southern end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia Governorate in the center, and Port Said Governorate in the north.

Geography

60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi)

600,000[1]

10/km2 (30/sq mi)

In the classical era, the region was known as Arabia Petraea. The peninsula acquired the name Sinai in modern times due to the assumption that a mountain near Saint Catherine's Monastery is the Biblical Mount Sinai.[2] Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in the Abrahamic faiths.


The Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 3100 BC). This comes in stark contrast to the region north of it, the Levant (the present-day territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine), which, due largely to its strategic geopolitical location and cultural convergences, has historically been the center of conflict between Egypt and various states of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. In periods of foreign occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire (1517–1867) and the United Kingdom (1882–1956). Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression due to the simultaneous coordinated attack by the UK, France and Israel) of 1956, and during the Six-Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was unsuccessful. In 1982, as a result of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from all of the Sinai Peninsula except the contentious territory of Taba, which was returned after a ruling by a commission of arbitration in 1989.


Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history.

History

Chalcolithic

A cave with paintings of people and animals was discovered about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Mount Catherine in January 2020, dates back to the Chalcolithic Period, c. 5th–4th millennium BCE.[18]

Ancient Egypt

From the time of the First Dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai at two locations, now called by their Egyptian Arabic names Wadi Magharah and Serabit El Khadim. The mines were worked intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable. These may be the first historically attested mines.


The fortress Tjaru in western Sinai was a place of banishment for Egyptian criminals. The Way of Horus connected it across northern Sinai with ancient Canaan.

Achaemenid Persian Period

At the end of the time of Darius I, the Great (521–486 BCE) Sinai was part of the Persian province of Abar-Nahra, which means 'beyond the river [Euphrates]'.[19]


Cambyses successfully managed the crossing of the hostile Sinai Desert, traditionally Egypt's first and strongest line of defence, and brought the Egyptians under Psamtik III, son and successor of Ahmose, to battle at Pelusium. The Egyptians lost and retired to Memphis; the city fell to the Persian control and the Pharaoh was carried off in captivity to Susa in Persia.

Gardner, Ann. "At Home in South Sinai". Nomadic Peoples 2000. Vol. 4, Iss. 2; pp. 48–67. Detailed account of Bedouin women

H. J. L. Beadnell (May 1926). "Central Sinai". Geographical Journal. 67 (5): 385–398. :1926GeogJ..67..385B. doi:10.2307/1782203. JSTOR 1782203.

Bibcode

C. W. Wilson (1873). . Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 43: 206–240. doi:10.2307/1798627. JSTOR 1798627.

"Recent Surveys in Sinai and Palestine"

Jacobs, Jessica (2006). . In Minca, Claudio; Oakes, Tim (eds.). Travels in Paradox: Remapping Tourism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-2876-5. Retrieved 7 January 2010.

"Tourist Places and Negotiating Modernity: European Women and Romance Tourism in the Sinai"

Teague, Matthew; Moyer, Matt (March 2009). . National Geographic Magazine. 215 (3). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society: 99–121. ISSN 0027-9358. Archived from the original on 11 December 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010.

"The Sinai's Separate Peace"

,Yesterday and To-day in Sinai (Edinburgh/London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1931).

Jarvis, C.S.

Strategic Impact (52), issue: 3 / 2014, pp. 39–47

New terrorist challenges in the Sinai peninsula, prominent jihadists organisations

Guide to Sinai, covering background information on history, flora, fauna, desert, Bedouin, safaris and geology of Sinai

Sinai Local Magazine

The Independent, 15 March 2008.

The Complete Guide To: The Sinai

Sinai in ancient Egypt

Broadcasting videos from Sinai

Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Images of the Sinai Desert

IRIN humanitarian news: EU grant to tackle rural poverty in South Sinai

Archived 3 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine

Sinai trekking and safari: route maps and photo archive