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the sinuous wadis of the south
and the majestic, blasted vistas
of the interior, the landscape
is both visually overpowering
and utterly still--as if nature
had frozen the vast symphony
of the earth's creation in stone.
And
in fact that idea is not so
far from the truth, for the
twisted, multicoloured granite
and limestone terrain constitutes
a stunning geologic record that
stretches back eons. The most
ancient of Sinai's elements
are its craggy southern mountains,
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whose
weatherworn granite dates from
the Precambrian period, more
than 600 million years ago.
Less old, though more expressive
in some ways of the antiquity
of Sinai, are the dozens of
Wadis, or fossilized riverbeds,
that define the terrain all
over the peninsula. From the
depth and frequency of the Wadis,
we can tell that Sinai was at
one time a lush and fertile
region.
Even
today, these sandy courses carry
sufficient water below their
surface to support a remarkable
variety of life. Larger wadis,
like the Wadi Kid and the legendary
Wadi Feiran, are quite fertile
in places, and a careful exploration
of even the smallest of wadis
will reveal surprising pockets
of color.
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In
fact, it is not uncommon
during certain seasons
for sudden storms to send
floodwaters raging down
the close-hewn channels
of the coastal wadis--floods
that bring in their wake
a veritable explosion
of brilliant green plant
life.
The Fauna of this landscape
is, as one would expect,
a hardy lot, with a curious
tendency to bear an "x"
in their names: desert
fox and Nubian ibex, many
reptilian species, the
small hyrax (a sort of
guinea pig) and the occasional
gazelle, and many birds,
especially in the coastal
regions. Plant life is
similarly resilient: date
palms in especially fertile
oases and even mangroves
in the fertile delta of
the Wadi Kid, but otherwise
mostly acacia trees and
other desert vegetation.
As any photo of the land
reveals in an instant,
it is stone that dominates
the landscape of Sinai,
though that stone seems
at times to carry as much
lively color as any rainforest
canopy. However, the landscape
of Sinai is only half
of the story--equally
magnificent is the world
that lies off its coast,
the coral reefs of the
Red Sea.
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Ancient
Sinai (6000 - 600 BC)
Humankind's
presence in Sinai dates
back eight thousand years,
when early bronze age
settlers arrived in search
of valuable metals. They
developed the peninsula's
copper and turquoise mines,
which later drew the attention
of Egypt's earliest pharaohs.
By 3000 BC Egypt had asserted
its control over the region.
For the next three millenia,
Sinai remained sparsely
inhabited, serving primarily
as a mining region and
as a military route between
Egypt and the great civilizations
of the Fertile Crescent.
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Biblical
Sinai (c. 1400 BC)
Even as great chariot
armies clattered back
and forth across its stony
expanses, Sinai played
host to a quieter but
ultimately far more memorable
set of events. Around
1400 BC, Moses led the
Israelites through its
"great and terrible
wilderness" on the
epic journey recounted
in Exodus. Three thousand
years later, the sites
and the episodes of that
journey continue to stand
at the very core of the
history of Sinai.
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classical
Sinai (600bc-600 ad)
As
the power of the pharaohs
waned and that of the
Greeks and Romans waxed,
the Sinai was drawn into
a new era. In the north,
the ancient Track of Horus
became a fortified Roman
road with its center at
the great city of Pelusium,
and in the south Christian
refugees (fleeing persecution
in Egypt) began to build
isolated settlements.
By 500 AD, the Roman Empire
had split, and Sinai fell
into the Christian realm
of Byzantium. In 565 AD,
the Byzantine emperor
Justinian expressed his
devotion by constructing
the Monastery of St. Catherine
at the base of Mount Sinai.
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Islamic
& ottoman Sinai (600-1900
ad)
With
the advent of Islam in
the 7th century, the cultural
and political landscape
changed once again. Pilgrims
from Egypt to Mecca prompted
the construction of new
towns to shelter and protect
them. Medieval Europe
launched the crusades,
and Sinai once again became
a thoroughfare for armies,
and great fortresses like
that on Pharaoh's Island
were built. As this period
ended, Bedouin tribes
from the east arrived
and became the de facto
rulers of the peninsula's
rough terrain. For the
next several hundred years
they lived relatively
undisturbed, establishing
migratory territories
and cultural traditions
that lasted well into
our own time.
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recent
history(1900ad-present)
The story of Sinai in
the last half-century
is dominated by the conflicts
between Egypt and Israel,
the latter of which occupied
the peninsula between
1967 and 1982. Since Israel's
withdrawal in accordance
with the Camp David accords,
a less militarized Sinai
has welcomed ever-growing
numbers of visitors from
all countries. Its religious
and cultural heritage,
as well as its spectacular
natural environment, have
stimulated an era of economic
prosperity that is unprecedented
in the peninsula's long
history. |
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most people, however, the word
"bedouin" conjures
up a much richer and more evocative
image--of lyrical, shifting
sands, flowing robes, and the
long, loping strides of camels.
For
several centuries, such images
were not far from the truth.
In the vast, arid expanses
of the Sinai, as in the Negev
and the deserts of Arabia,
the many tribes of the bedouin
journeyed by camel from oasis
to oasis, following a traditional
way of life and maintaining
a pastoral culture of exceptional
grace, honor, and beauty.
Most of the bedouin tribes
of the Sinai are descended
from peoples who migrated
from the Arabian peninsula
between the 14th and 18th
centuries, making the bedouin
themselves relatively recent
arrivals in this ancient land.
Today, many of the bedouin
of the Sinai have traded their
traditional existence for
the pursuits and the conventions
of the modern world, as startling
changes over the last two
decades have irrevocably altered
the nature of life for the
bedouin and for the land they
inhabit. Nonetheless,bedouin
culture still survives in
the Sinai, where there is
a growing appreciation of
its value and its fragility.
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Few places in the desert are
capable of supporting the
life of even a small community
for an extended period of
time, and so the bedouin of
the Sinai, like those of Arabia
and the Negev, would stay
on the move. With herds of
sheep and goats as well as
camels, the Sinai bedouin
migrated from one meagrely
fertile area to another--each
offered sustenance and shelter
for time, while the others
were naturally replenished.
In such an unforgiving environment,
any violation of territorial
rights was viewed with severe
disfavor. It is a hallmark
of bedouin culture that such
trespasses were neither easily
forgiven nor quickly forgotten.
At the same time, a shared
respect for the dangers and
hardships of the desert imbued
bedouin culture with a profound
and justly celebrated sense
of hospitality. In the vast
silence and brooding solitude
of the Sinai, simply encountering
another person was--and in
some regions still is--a rather
unusual and noteworthy event.
A new face was cause for great
interest, for happy generosity
and careful etiquette, and
for common civility, all values
celebrated in bedouin poetry,
sayings, and songs.
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The
bedouin of the Sinai share
with other Egyptians the jalabiyya,
a long, hooded robe that is
a standard form of clothing
both in the teeming metropolis
of Cairo and in the solitary
plains of the Sinai.
The
most easily recognised aspect
of a bedouin's attire is his
headgear--which consists of
the kufiyya-cloth and 'agal-rope
that constitute proper attire
for a bedouin man. The headrope
in particular carries great
significance, for it is indicative
of the wearer's ability to
uphold the obligations and
responsibilities of manhood.
Bedouin women, too, signal
their status with their headgear--while
all women are required to
keep their hair covered, married
women in particular wrap about
their forehead a black cloth
known as 'asaba.
Bedouins
mark their graves with exceptional
simplicity, placing one ordinary
stone at the head of the grave
and one at its foot. Moreover,
it is traditional to leave
the clothes of the deceased
atop the grave, to be adopted
by whatever needy travellers
may pass by.
A
bedouin tent is customarily
divided into two sections
by a woven curtain known as
a ma'nad. One section, reserved
for the men and for the reception
of most guests, is called
the mag'ad, or 'sitting place.'
The other, in which the women
cook and receive female guests,
is called the maharama, or
'place of the women.'
Having
been welcomed into a bedouin
tent, guests are honored,
respected, and nourished,
frequently with copious amounts
of fresh, cardamom-spiced
coffee.
Visitors are also cause for
some festivity, including
music, poetry, and on special
occasions even dance. The
traditional instruments of
bedouin musicians are the
shabbaba, a length of metal
pipe fashioned into a sort
of flute, the rababa, a versatile,
one-string violin, and of
course the voice. The primary
singers among the bedouin
are the women, who sit in
rows facing each other to
engage in a sort of sung dialogue,
composed of verses and exchanges
that commemorate and comment
upon special events and occasions. |
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The most important places
to visit in Sinai are, El
Aqaba Gulf and Taba, Dahab
and Nuweiba, Pharaoh's Island,
Sharm El-Sheikh, St. Catherine's
Monastery and Ras Mohammed
National Park.
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