Present
Over the past 30 years Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. The most popular tourist destination in Sinai are Mount Sinai ("Jabal Musa") and St. Catherine's Monastery, which is considered to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, and the beach resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba. Most tourists arrive at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, through Eilat, Israel and the Taba Border Crossing, by train or bus from Cairo or by Ferry from Aqaba in Jordan.
Most of the Sinai Peninsula is divided among two Egyptian governorates, or provinces, named Ganub Sina ("South Sinai") and Shamal Sina ("North Sinai"). Three more governates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt. el-Sewais ("the Suez") is on the southern end of the Suez Canal, el-Isma'ileyyah in the center, and Port Said in the north.
Approximately 66,500 people live in Ganub Sina and 314,000 live in Shamal Sina. Port Said itself has a population of roughly 500,000 people. Portions of the populations of el-Isma'ileyyah and el-Suweis live in Sinai, while the rest live on the western side of the Suez Canal. The combined population of these two governorates is roughly 1.3 million (only a part of that population live in Sinai, while the rest live on the western side of the Suez Canal). Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinai's cities and towns reach −16 °C (3 °F).
Large numbers of Egyptians from the Nile Valley and Delta have moved to the area to work in tourism, while at the same time development has negatively affected the native Sinai Bedouin population. In order to help alleviate these problems, various NGOs have begun to operate in the region including the Makhad Trust, a UK charity which assists the Bedouin in developing a sustainable income while protecting Sinai's natural environment, heritage and culture.
Read more about this topic: Sinai Peninsula
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“One of the things that is most striking about the young generation is that they never talk about their own futures, there are no futures for this generation, not any of them and so naturally they never think of them. It is very striking, they do not live in the present they just live, as well as they can, and they do not plan. It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for a future, none at all.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Happy you poets who can be present and so present by a simple flicker of your genius, and not, like the clumsier race, have to lay a train and pile up faggots that may not after prove in the least combustible!”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“It cannot be denied that for a society which has to create scarcity to save its members from starvation, to whom abundance spells disaster, and to whom unlimited energy means unlimited power for war and destruction, there is an ominous cloud in the distance though at present it be no bigger than a man’s hand.”
—Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944)