Mount Sinai Faces Major Development Plans As Egypt Aims For Thirty Million Tourists By 2028, Transforming The Sacred Sinai Peninsula Into A Tourism Hub

Published on September 7, 2025

Mount Sinai, a spot of profound belief and belief significance, is astatine nan halfway of a arguable improvement task that has raised alarms astir its effect connected some its sacredness and nan section Bedouin tribes. St. Catherine’s Monastery, a sixth-century Greek Orthodox landmark, has agelong been a visit tract for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. However, nan distant godforsaken scenery surrounding nan monastery is being radically transformed pinch nan building of luxury resorts, hotels, and infrastructure designed to boost Egypt’s tourism sector.

While nan Egyptian authorities touts nan task arsenic a basal economical boon, critics pass of its irreversible effects connected nan earthy environment, section culture, and nan accepted Bedouin measurement of life. These developments person sparked concerns not conscionable complete nan early of this UNESCO World Heritage site, but besides complete nan destiny of nan indigenous communities that person called this region location for centuries.

Development Plans Spark Controversy

Egypt’s eager scheme to move nan Mount Sinai region into a awesome tourer hub has triggered beardown reactions from conservationists, belief leaders, and nan section Bedouin community. The authorities intends to pull millions of visitors pinch nan building of luxury resorts, shopping complexes, and a caller airport, which will beryllium situated successful adjacent proximity to nan St. Catherine’s Monastery. This project, known arsenic nan “Great Transfiguration Project,” is being promoted arsenic a measurement to revitalize Egypt’s economy, particularly aft nan world pandemic, and to summation nan number of world visitors.

However, nan building of specified large-scale developments has led to important concerns astir nan preservation of nan area’s humanities and belief value. Mount Sinai, wherever Moses is believed to person received nan Ten Commandments, holds a heavy relationship to belief history. The St. Catherine’s Monastery, 1 of nan world’s oldest continually operating monasteries, is revered not only for its belief value but besides for its unsocial blend of Christian and Islamic history. A mosque built connected its grounds and an ancient Christian manuscript postulation further exemplify nan humanities fusion that makes this tract a surviving testament to hundreds of years of serene coexistence.

Impact connected nan Bedouin Community

In summation to nan biology concerns, nan improvement has displaced nan accepted Bedouin communities who person lived successful nan area for centuries. The Jebeleya tribe, known arsenic nan Guardians of St. Catherine, has had their homes and eco-tourism camps demolished, pinch small compensation aliases respect for their rights. Many locals, who had peacefully coexisted pinch nan onshore and nan monastery for generations, are now witnessing their measurement of life being uprooted by forces beyond their control.

For nan Bedouin, nan improvement of Mount Sinai represents much than conscionable a beingness translator of nan land; it is simply a taste and belief displacement that threatens their accepted nomadic lifestyle. Once viewed arsenic stewards of nan land, nan Bedouin now find themselves marginalized successful their ain homeland, excluded from nan tourism opportunities that are being created astir them.

Concerns About Preservation and Cultural Impact

UNESCO, which has agelong recognized nan taste and earthy worth of nan St. Catherine’s Monastery and its surroundings, has raised alarms complete nan accelerated gait of construction. Despite its position arsenic a World Heritage site, which is meant to guarantee protection and preservation, location is small grounds that nan government’s improvement plans person taken into relationship nan area’s biology aliases taste sensitivity. The rugged scenery surrounding nan monastery has been described arsenic an integral portion of nan site’s cosmopolitan value, yet nan ongoing building threatens to change its quality permanently.

The monastery’s relationship to aggregate belief traditions is 1 of its astir unsocial aspects. It is considered a awesome of bid and unity, bringing together followers of different faiths successful a shared spot of reverence. The Greek Orthodox Church has expressed beardown guidance to nan building plans, arguing that nan monastery’s personality is astatine risk. The religion has agelong been a cardinal subordinate successful preserving nan integrity of nan site, and its engagement remains captious arsenic tensions betwixt Egypt and Greece complete ownership and power of nan onshore proceed to unfold.

Tourism Growth vs. Preservation

While nan authorities insists that nan task is basal for nan early of Egypt’s tourism industry, it must equilibrium economical improvement pinch taste and biology preservation. Egypt is aiming to pull 30 cardinal visitors by 2028, and nan Sinai Peninsula has been identified arsenic a imaginable goldmine for tourism growth. However, nan occurrence of specified initiatives will dangle connected really good Egypt tin support nan equilibrium betwixt modern tourism infrastructure and nan preservation of its rich | humanities and belief heritage.

The translator of Mount Sinai could group a precedent for different ineffable sites astir nan world. The world tourism manufacture has often faced disapproval for turning belief and taste landmarks into commercialized attractions. The mobility remains: tin tourism beryllium developed successful a measurement that respects some nan ineffable quality of these sites and nan authorities of nan section communities who person historically lived successful harmony pinch them?

Mount Sinai’s modulation from a distant belief tract to a awesome tourism destination raises important questions astir taste preservation, sustainability, and nan worth of indigenous knowledge successful managing ineffable lands. As improvement continues, it will beryllium captious for Egypt to guarantee that its actions bespeak a committedness to some economical maturation and nan protection of its practice for early generations.