Michael Batson

The Sinai Peninsula is a land bridge between Africa and Asia and is the only part of Egypt in Asia. Originally called Arabia Petraea it sits between the Mediterranean and Red seas and was once called Rome’s Arabian Province when annexed by the emperor Trajan. Trajan was famous for pushing the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent earning him the nickname Optimus (“the Best”) by the Roman Senate. Sinai was known to Egyptians in ancient times as “the Mining Country” and the “Ladders of Turquoise”. The name “Sinai” is Christian from more modern times based on biblical assumptions and lies in the heart of an area where there’s the aquatic trifecta: the Red, the Dead, and the Med. Sinai looks like a giant geographic triangle of which I’ve travelled all three sides in three trips: once across the top from Gaza when travelling to Egypt – a journey not a destination; then from Suez staying at Dahab, and once before then going south through Taba along the coast to Sharm el-Sheikh. Sinai (“Sin -ai” or “Si-nai”) covers an area of some 60,ooo square kilometress with a scattered present day population of about 600,000. It’s hot, dry, largely devoid of vegetation, has few population centres, and back then a chilled-out atmosphere with basic amenities, and few visitors. Map of SinaiThe Sinai has been part of Egypt for over 5000 years going back to the First Dynasty in the Bronze Age. Later came the Achaemenid Persians, Rome and Byzantine periods, the Ayyubid