Sinai Peninsula

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Lore & Background

In the classical era, the region was known as Arabia Petraea. The name Sinai was acquired in modern times due to the assumption that a mountain near Saint Catherine's Monastery, named Mount Sinai, is the Biblical Mount Sinai. The origin of the name is a source of contention; it may have been derived from the ancient Mesopotamian moon-god Sin, or from the Hebrew word seneh (burning bush), according to the 8th- or 9th-century Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer. The peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 3100 BC). Ancient Egyptians mined turquoise there at two locations, now called Wadi Maghareh and Serabit el-Khadim, calling the region Biau (the 'Mining Country') and Khetiu Mafkat ('Ladders of Turquoise'). During the Achaemenid Persian period, at the end of the time of Darius I (521–486 BCE), Sinai was part of the Persian province of Abar-Nahra. Under Roman rule, after the conquest of the Nabatean kingdom in 106, it became part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai was constructed by order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 565.

Reader's Guide

The Sinai Peninsula holds strategic and religious significance. It has been a crossroads of conflict and control. In periods of foreign occupation, Sinai was occupied and controlled by foreign empires, including the Ottoman Empire (1517–1867) and the United Kingdom (1882–1956). In the 20th century, Israel, along with France and the United Kingdom, invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Israel invaded Sinai at the start of the Six-Day War of 1967 due to Egyptian forces massing to invade Israel. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War, seizing most of the east bank of the Suez Canal while Israel seized even more area to its west. Israel exchanged the ten kilometers along the east bank and territory seized in 1973 for a 1974 ceasefire. 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. Its climate is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies, with winter temperatures in some cities and towns reaching −16 °C.

Did You Know?

• Sinai is the only part of Egypt located in West Asia.
• The ancient Egyptians called Sinai 'Biau' (the Mining Country) and 'Khetiu Mafkat' (Ladders of Turquoise) because of turquoise mining.
• Winter temperatures in some Sinai towns reach −16 °C, making it one of the coldest provinces in Egypt.
• A cave with Chalcolithic paintings was discovered about 30 km north of Mount Catherine in January 2020.
• The fortress Tjaru in western Sinai was used as a place of banishment for Egyptian criminals.

Geographic Crossroads

Sinai occupies a singular position in the world's geography. It is the only portion of Egypt situated in West Asia, forming a natural land bridge that connects the African and Asian continents. The peninsula takes a roughly triangular shape, with its northern shore lying on the Mediterranean Sea and its southwest and southeast shores on the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. To the west, a 125-kilometre-wide strip of land known as the Isthmus of Suez links it to Africa, containing the Suez Canal, while the eastern isthmus connecting it to the Asian mainland stretches around 200 kilometres wide. Tectonically, Sinai rests on the African Plate, with the Arabian Plate on its eastern boundary. Despite sitting in a country famous for desert heat, Sinai is actually one of Egypt's coldest provinces, owing to its high altitudes and mountainous topographies; winter temperatures in some towns can plunge to minus sixteen degrees Celsius. The southernmost tip is the Ras Muhammad National Park. Administratively, the vast majority of the peninsula is split between North Sinai Governorate and South Sinai Governorate, covering about 60,000 km² and home to approximately 600,000 people, with Arish as its largest city at around 160,000 residents.

Turquoise, Banishment, and Ancient Trade

Long before the name Sinai entered common usage, the peninsula was known to the ancient Egyptians by names that reflected its economic purpose. Because turquoise extraction was the region's defining industry, they called it Biau, meaning the Mining Country, and Khetiu Mafkat, or Ladders of Turquoise. From the time of the First Dynasty or before, Egyptian workers mined turquoise at two locations, now called by their Egyptian Arabic names Wadi Maghareh and Serabit el-Khadim. These operations ran intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years, and some scholars consider them the first historically attested mines. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable. Beyond mining, the fortress Tjaru in western Sinai served as a place of banishment for Egyptian criminals. From there, the Way of Horus connected it across northern Sinai with ancient Canaan. In January 2020, a cave with paintings of people and animals was discovered about 30 kilometres north of Mount Catherine, dating back to the Chalcolithic Period, c. 5th–4th millennium BCE, pushing the known human presence in the region even further back.

Wars, Ceasefires, and the Long Road to Peace

In the modern era, Sinai has been the stage for some of the most consequential military confrontations of the twentieth century. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom jointly invaded and occupied the peninsula. In 1967, Israel invaded Sinai at the start of the Six-Day War due to Egyptian forces massing to invade Israel. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War, seizing most of the east bank of the Suez Canal while Israel seized even more area to its west. A 1974 ceasefire then saw Israel exchange the ten kilometers along the east bank and territory seized in 1973 for a formal truce. The landmark Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979 set the framework for a full Israeli withdrawal, which was completed in 1982. The sole exception was the contentious territory of Taba, which remained under Israeli control until an arbitration commission issued its ruling in 1989, finally returning the land to Egypt. Before these modern conflicts, Sinai had also been under Ottoman rule from 1517 to 1867 and British control from 1882 to 1956.

A Name Shaped by Gods and Scripture

The origin of the word Sinai remains a subject of scholarly debate. One theory traces it to the ancient Mesopotamian moon-god Sin, whose worship had a presence in the area; the Egyptian moon-god Thoth is also associated with Sin, and his worship was widespread throughout the south tip of the Sinai Peninsula. A separate tradition, recorded in the 8th- or 9th-century Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, links the name to the Hebrew word seneh, meaning bush, and holds that Mount Horeb only received the name Sinai after God appeared to Moses in the shape of a burning bush. The English form of the name came from Latin, ultimately from Hebrew, and while an older pronunciation rendered it as SY-nee-eye, the standard English rendering today is SY-ny. In the classical era the region was simply called Arabia Petraea. The modern name's religious weight is immense: a mountain near Saint Catherine's Monastery is widely assumed to be the Biblical Mount Sinai, making the peninsula one of the most sacred locations across the Abrahamic faiths.