For years, visitors were ventured in Mount Sinai with a Badwin guide to watch sunrise over the virgin landscape, rocky or go walking long distances led by the BDP.
Now one of the most sacred places in Egypt – which the Jews, Christians and Muslims respects – in the heart of an unbearable row on plans to turn it into a huge new tourism project.
Mount Sinai, known locally as Jabal Musa, is known as Moses was said to have been given the ten commandments. Many also believe that this is the place where God spoke, according to the Bible and the Qur’an, to the Prophet from burning jungle.
The Monastery of St. Catherine in the sixth century, run by the Greek Orthodox Church, is also present – and its monks seem to remain now after the Egyptian authorities, under Greek pressure, denied their desire to close it.
However, there is still deep concern about how the isolated desert site has long been converted – the UNESCO World Heritage site that includes a monastery, city and mountain -. Luxury hotels, villas and bazaars to shop in construction there.
The isolated desert site has been transferred long ago [BBC]
It is also home to the traditional Badwin community, the Jibeleya tribe. Indeed, a tribe, known as St. Catherine’s Eyes, has destroyed their homes and tourist environmental camps without little or non -compensation. They even had to remove the bodies from their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new parking.
Ben Hofler, a British travel writer who worked closely with the Sinai tribes, says.
“This is not a development as Jbeleya sees it or asked for that, but what it looks when it is imposed from top to bottom to serve the interests of strangers on the interests of the local community,” he told the BBC.
“A new urban world is built around the Badwin tribe of Bedouin heritage,” he added. “It is a world they have always chosen to remain separate from it, to Bani who did not agree, and one that would change their place in their homeland forever.”
Local population, who number about 4000, does not want to talk directly about the changes.
Building in the Plain of Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]
Until now, Greece is the foreign power that was more hiding about Egyptian plans, because of its relationship with the monastery.
Tensions erupted between Athens and Cairo after an Egyptian court ruled in May that Saint Catherine – the oldest Christian monastery in the world – lies in the lands of the state.
After decades, the judges said that the monastery was “entitled to use” the land on which it is located and the archaeological religious sites that constitute its surroundings.
Archbishop Ironymos II, from Athens, head of the Church of Greece, was quick to condemn the ruling.
He said in a statement, “The ownership of the monastery is seized and acquired. This spiritual lighthouse of Orthodoxy and Hellenistic is now facing an existential threat.”
In a rare interview, the Archbishop of Saint Catherine Damianos told the decision that the decision was “a dangerous blow to us … and shame.” His dealings with the case led to bitter sections between the monks and his last decision by step down.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem indicated that the holy site – which has the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical – was granted a protection speech by the Prophet Muhammad himself.
He said that the Byzantine monastery – which also includes a small mosque built in the era of Fatima – was “a dedication to peace between Christians and Muslims and a shelter of hope in a world that is steeped in the conflict.”
While the controversial court ruling still exists, a wave of diplomacy ultimately culminated in a joint declaration between Greece and Egypt that guarantees the protection of the Greek Orthodox identity of St. Catherine and cultural heritage.
Mount Sinai, known locally as Jabal Musa, is the place where Moses is said [Ben Hoffler]
A “special gift” or is not sensitive?
Egypt started the great manifestation project sponsored by the state for tourists in 2021. The plan includes opening hotels, environmental reptiles and the Grand Visitor Center, in addition to expanding the small airport and a car to Jabal Musa.
The government promotes development as “Egypt’s gift to the entire world and all religions.”
“The project will provide all tourism and entertainment services for visitors, and enhance the development of the city [of St Catherine] Housing Minister Sharif Al -Shiribini said last year that the surrounding areas while preserving the environmental, visual and heritage nature of virgin nature, and providing residency to those working in Saint Catherine projects.
Although the work has stopped, at least temporarily, due to the financing problems, the Plain of Al -Juha has already been transferred – in the light of the Monastery of St. Catherine -. Building continues on new roads.
This is the place where the followers of Moses, the Israelis, are said to have waited during his time on Mount Sinai. Critics say the special natural characteristics of the region are destroyed.
In detailing the distinguished global value of the site, UNESCO notes how “the rugged mountain scene around it … is an ideal background for the monastery.”
“Its decline shows a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and dimension on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other hand,” she says.
The region is famous for its natural beauty and rugged mountainous landscapes [Ben Hoffler]
In 2023, UNESCO highlighted its fears and called on Egypt to stop developments, verify its impact and produce a plan for preservation.
This did not happen.
In July, World Heritage Watch sent an open message calling on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to place the St. Catherine region on the World Heritage Sites list in danger.
Activists also contacted Charles as a sponsor of the St. Catherine Foundation, which collects money to help preserve the heritage of the monastery and study it through its collection of valuable old Christian manuscripts. The king described the site as “a great spiritual treasure that must be preserved for future generations.”
The huge project is not the first in Egypt to attract criticism for the lack of sensitivity to the country’s unique history.
But the government believes that the series of its great plans is the key to stimulating the economy of the Council.
The tourism sector in Egypt began once to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when the brutal war in Gaza and a new wave of regional instability. The government announced the goal of reaching 30 million visitors by 2028.
In consecutive Egyptian governments, the commercial development of Sinai was implemented without consulting the original Bedouins.
The peninsula was arrested by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and only returned to Egypt after the two countries signed the peace treaty in 1979. The Bedouins have since complained about his treatment like second -class citizens.
The construction of the famous red sea destinations in Egypt, including Sharm El -Sheikh, began in South Sinai in the 1980s. Many see similarities with what is happening in Saint Catherine now.
“The Bedouins were the people of the region, and they were the guides, workers, and the people who hired it,” says Egyptian journalist Mohanad Sabri.
“Then I entered industrial tourism and was expelled – not only from work but was physically pushed from the sea to the background.”
A hotel under construction in Sahl Al -Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]
As with the Red Sea sites, Egyptians are expected to be brought from other places of the country to work in the development of the new Saint Catherine. However, the government says it is the “upgrade” of the Bedouin residential areas.
The Monastery of St. Catherine has carried many turmoil over the past and a half, but when the oldest of the monks moved at the site originally, it was still a remote retreat.
This began to change as the expansion of the Red Sea resorts brought thousands of pilgrims on daily trips at peak times.
In recent years, large crowds have often seen what is said to be the remains of burning bush or a museum that displays pages of Codex Sinaiticus – the oldest alive version in the world of the New Testament.
Now, although the monastery and the deep religious importance of the site will remain, its centuries’ surroundings and ways of life have been irreversibly changed.