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Sinai as a Region of Transit

Although Sinai does have its own history of settlement and civilization, for much of the time from the Stone Age until today the peninsula has served primarily as a transit corridor between Egypt and Palestine and between the empires of Africa and Asia. The Sinai desert was for long stretches of time a nearly deserted and economically insignificant place that was left to roving nomadic Bedouin. The main way was and is still the route along the Mediterranean Sea, since there the water supply is certain and travel is not obstructed by mountains. Apart from the coastal route, there are three other routes long of great importance: the desert track from Ismailia to Nizana; the Islamic pilgrimage routes from Suez to Eilat, Darb al-Hagg and Darb al-Shawi; and the southern route from Suez through Wadi Feiran, which finally leads north again to Eilat and provided access to die copper and turquoise mines. On these routes, where Stone Age shepherds and hunters once wandered from one watering place to another, marched pharaonic armies and their Asiatic opponents. The Romans turned them into highways, and Islamic troops rode along them on their conquering assault on North Africa. After North Africa's conversion to Islam, the Darb al-Hagg was made into a splendid road for religious pilgrims to Mecca. Those times are attested to by the fortress Qal'at al-Gundi, built by Saladin in Wadi Sidr; the ruins of the caravansary in Nakhl, unfortunately destroyed in the war in 1956; and the 180-meter-long rocky passage of Aqabat al-Urqub east of al-Thamad with its monumental inscriptions from the Mamluk period. The fortress on the island Gaziret al-Fara'un in the Gulf of Aqaba built to protect the harbour of Eilat is evidence of this Islamic pilgrim tradition as well. The recently reconstructed fortress stands on the ruins of a fortress Salah al-Din had built about 1115 AD. A crusader fortress stood there previously. The present name of Pharaoh's Island is rather misleading, and it is often known as Coral Island.
The Crusaders marched through Sinai five times. Then came the Turkish conquerors, and even Napoleon's troops used the Sinai roads. After Egyptian independence, the Tih desert was a theater for the tank battles between Israel and Egypt, and once again the ancient desert routes were used as military highways. With the October War in 1973 this historical phase ended for the time being, and Israeli-occupied Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982 according to the Camp David Agreement.
As the most recent history has shown in the Gulf War, Sinai's tradition as a transit region is obviously not over. In the fall of 1990, a strange picture presented itself: a stream of luxury limousines with Kuwaiti license plates and roofs piled so high with suitcases, boxes, and crates that the worst fear was for the vehicles' axles and springs. On the road to Suez, the old pilgrimage route of Darb al-Hagg, vehicle followed vehicle in an seemingly endless convoy headed toward Cairo and away from Saddam Hussein's invading troops.
The Egyptian government forces the pace of Sinai's economic and touristic development forward. The shock of the Israeli occupation has shaken the land awake. Old desert tracks have been turned into modern asphalt highways. Meanwhile, it is to be feared that too much is being done, as for instance in the destruction of the delightful Wadi Watir caused by construction of a rather unnecessary road. And if plans to construct a bridge from Saudi Arabia to Ras Nusrani over the Island and the Straits of Tiran should be realized, it would be a terrible intrusion in the landscape of the entire southern Sinai.
Be that as it may, all efforts aim at taking final possession of Sinai. Modern Egypt completes thereby the old tradition of the ancient Egyptians, who always saw Sinai as a sphere of influence that could be utilized when required but never really considered Egyptian territory.
In the very recent past, in October 1993, history was made again in Sinai. The hotel in Taba, close to Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba and returned to Egypt only in 1989, was the venue for the Palestinian-Israeli peace conference, at which the autonomy agreement for Gaza and Jericho was to be realized. Egypt as host had taken on the patronage of these negotiations.
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