Sharm el Sheikh is the principal resort
on the "Red Sea Riviera", situated almost
at the extreme tip of the Sinai peninsula, a triangle
of land about 150 miles wide by 200 miles long that
has Egypt to the west and Israel to the east.
For a long time there was nothing in
Sinai, it being regarded as a pretty useless piece of
land that provided a useful buffer zone between Egypt
and Israel. In fact there is still pretty much nothing
in Sinai, though in the last 30 years or so, tourism
has been a boom industry due to the guaranteed sunshine,
warm sea temperatures and in particular the underwater
life.
The tourist areas are exclusively along
the coast and there is no real reason to leave the coast
other than to visit St. Catherine's Monastery which
dates back to 527AD at the base of Gebel Musa - traditionally
accepted as Mount Sinai where Moses received the 10
commandments from God. Sinai is also accepted as the
desert where Moses and the Israelites wandered for 40
years.
A backdrop to many hotels and tourist
features therefore are the ancient, parched and desolate
desert mountains of Sinai.
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