Driving south along the coastal road of the eastern Sinai Peninsula, more than 200km, means having a lot of road blocks for security reasons; around these stops we were not allowed to take photos. We went a bus full of friends from our kibbutz, which means there is a backside on a bus full of people, I cannot stop and photograph the views, the landscape, when I want to, even when Nature is absolutely breath-taking.
We live in the Negev, also a desert, but different, the special thing about the Sinai coastal road is the contrast with the blue sea, different blue sky, and contrast beautifully with the yellowish mountains and sand of the Sinai, which is much wilder, stronger, and more powerful, magnificent and isolated, than we know from the Negev Desert; there they have fewer acacia trees, and fewer people although there appears to be more camels.
All pictures are are photographed through the window of the bus, as very clear in this photo
Since our last visit to the Sinai was in 1977, there has been development of resorts and hotels, which are quite indistinguishable from resorts elsewhere in the world.
Which part of the world are in? Tahiti? French Riviera? Greek Island? it looks all the same.
It does give you luxury of modern days.
I have tried to catch the landscapes along the road away from road blocks and police stations, just passing along the road, but driving in a bus with 60 people and photographing through the window is not easy although I do think I have managed to catch the essential of what the Sinai looks like. You judge!
Going to a foreign country I usually try to find out if there is something special to know, and it made me wonder what is the meaning or origin of the name: SINAI?
It turns out that is not so straight forward to answer, but there are several theories.
One theory suggests that Sinai has its origin from the name of the Sumerian moon god, Sin, a major god of the polytheistic religious system of that ancient civilization from 6,000- 8,000 years ago.
The ancient Egyptian dynasties from 4000-5000 years ago, exploited the mines of the Sinai calling it “the Mining Country” and “the Ladders of Turquoise”. In 106 AD the Romans annexed it as part of the Nabataean Kingdom under the name of ‘The Province of Arabia Petraea’ with Petra in Jordan as the capital. After the break down of the Roman Empire, the Sinai Peninsula became part of the Byzantine Empire and dominated by the Greek orthodox church.
That brings another theory as to the origin of the name Sinai, it has been suggested to have originated from the Hebrew ‘sneh’, meaning bush, associated with the legend that God revealed himself to Moses as a ‘burning bush’. The Christian and Muslim narratives recognize Mount Sinai near the Monastery of Santa Catherine as the location of the burning bush, as well as the mountain where Moses received the tables with the ten commandments. People of Jewish faith do not believe that it happened there.
The political border between Sinai and the Negev was decided upon in 1906 in an agreement between the Ottoman Empire ruling Israel of today and the British ruling today’s Egypt; that border was upheld in the peace agreements between Israel and Egypt when the Sinai was returned to Egypt (1982).
At the Egyptian side of the border
CORAL ISLAND
About 10 km from the border, we arrived at the Coral Island, or Pharaoh’s Island; in 1973 I swam over with a few friends, we touched the rocks, rested for 10 minutes and swam back. It has been recorded that Lawrence of Arabia had not been permitted to visit the island in 1914, and instead, like us, swam over and afterwards was very ‘enthralled by the sheer adventure of the episode rather than by the ruins on the island’.
It is said that Pharaoh Rameses III (1186-1155BC) visited the island and already then it was also called the Coral Island, as the underwater corals here are beautiful, though I have not explored them, not then and not now.
The island with a natural harbor was important in controlling the entrance to the Eilat/ Aqaba Bay and crossroads for trade, pilgrimages to the Sinai and to Mecca.
The castle on the island is named Castle of Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and Syria who expelled the crusaders from Jerusalem (1187).
The castle was probably built by the crusader king of Jerusalem, Baldwin 1 (1100-1118) and further reinforced by sultan Saladin after he conquered it in 1170-71.
Of interest, it is possible to see four countries from here: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. If the weather allows; we had a hazy view that did not come out good in the photo.
Pottery on the island has been dated to the 13-12th century BC, as well as ruins of a Byzantine church. But I have not seen that.
a castle as a child would draw it!
THE FJORD BAY
Another few km to the south we arrived at the Fjord, which is actually more like a small bay, but still beautiful and may be called a fjord by those who do not know the fjords of Norway. The contrasts of blue sky, blue sea and desert are very nice.
We had started our trip at 4 o’clock in the morning so continuing south most of my co-travelers were asleep or trying to sleep, but I could not stop photographing through the window. Here are some my photos:
the dyke of lava pushing us through the granite
from the window of the bus I did not see the pole coming, but this is desert view with the camels!
outside of the resort the plastic pollution is incredible and so unnecessary
So was the Sinai of October 2022! it was a great trip.
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