Egypt’s only Asian land was once turquoise mining country
The Sinai Peninsula is Egypt’s sole West Asian territory, a Mediterranean-to-Red Sea land bridge between Africa and Asia. Ancient Egyptians called it Biau, “Mining Country,” and Khetiu Mafkat, “Ladders of Turquoise,” for their main turquoise workings.
It has been part of Egypt since the First Dynasty, around 3100 BCE, unlike the frequently contested lands to its north. Classical writers included it in Arabia Petraea. The modern name assumes that the peak beside Saint Catherine’s Monastery is the biblical Mount Sinai, an identification that remains debated; some link the word to the Mesopotamian moon-god Sin. English took it from Latin, ultimately from Hebrew, and an older English pronunciation, SY-nee-eye, has fallen out of use.
The peninsula is a triangle with the Mediterranean to the north and the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba on its south-western and south-eastern sides. The 125-kilometre Isthmus of Suez, crossed by the canal, ties it to Africa, while a roughly 200-kilometre neck joins it to Asia. It sits on the African Plate with the Arabian Plate along its eastern edge, and Ras Muhammad National Park occupies the southern tip.
The North and South Sinai governorates cover about 60,000 square kilometres and had 597,000 residents in January 2013. Arish, capital of the north, is the biggest city at about 160,000, with the southern resort of Sharm El Sheikh and the port of El-Tor next in size; the dry, mountainous interior is thinly peopled, its largest settlements Saint Catherine and Nekhel. Altitude makes Sinai one of Egypt’s coldest regions, with winter lows reaching minus 16°C in places.
Egyptians mined turquoise at Wadi Maghareh and Serabit el-Khadim from the First Dynasty or earlier, seasonally and on and off for millennia, possibly the earliest documented mines anywhere; modern attempts to reopen them lost money. A cave painted with people and animals, found in January 2020 about 30 kilometres north of Mount Catherine, dates to the fifth or fourth millennium BCE. Reefs, desert and biblical sites now draw tourists.
Source: Sinai Peninsula
