Sinai: Location and Topography
The Sinai Penninsula
Split from Africa by the Suez Canal, the Sinai Peninsula is part of the Asian Continent. To its West lies the Gulf of Suez, to its East the Gulf of Aquaba.
With over 90% of its 61,000 km2 covered by towering mountains, the Sinai remains one of the most naturally fascinating landscapes on Earth. It has attracted explorers and adventurers throughout its several thousand years of history. This dates back to over 3,500 years B.C. to trade with the Ancient Egyptians, and the reported presence of Moses in the Sinai to save the Jewish people andreceive the Ten Commandments on top of Mount Sinai.This area is the original Christian ‘Holy Land’, and many areas within the Sinai are still revered as Biblicalsites.
The Sinai got its name from early inhabitants who worshipped the trinity between the Moon (Sin), Sun (Shamash) and Venus (Ishtar). They named the Sinai after their Moon God “Sin”. The Sinai’s most popular sites include Mount Sinai, St.Kathrine’s Monastery, the Coloured Canyon, WhiteCanyon, Ein Khudra Oasis and many more.
Some twenty million years ago Sinai was connected with Egypt and the Saudi Arabian Peninsula as part of the same land formation. Thermal currents in the earth’s mantle created huge cracks, which lifted and spread the land. Sinai is part of the Great Rift Valley, the great fracture in the earth’s crust, that begins in East Africa continues through the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aqaba through the Jordan Valley (Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee) widening each year about 5mm moving the Saudi Arabian Peninsula northwards.
Geologically Sinai can be roughly divided into three areas. The northern region consists of sand dunes and fossil beaches formed by the changing levels of the Mediterranean Sea during the glacial periods two million years ago. The landscape is flat and uniform, interrupted only by some vast sand- and limestone hills.
The scarcely inhabited Al Tih Plateau is the central geological area with limestone dating from the Tertiary Period. The highlands extend towards the south until it goes over into the third area consisting of granite and volcanic rock. Limestone and sandstone sediments are replaced by granite and basalt. Both rocks are produced by volcanic activity on the bottom of the ocean from the Precambrium.
(quoted from sinai4you)
