A major tourism project at Egypt’s sacred Mount Sinai is at the heart of a bitter dispute, pitting government development plans against the concerns of the local Bedouin community, religious authorities, and international conservation groups.
Revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Mount Sinai is traditionally held to be where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The remote desert landscape is also home to the 6th-century St. Catherine’s Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the world’s oldest continuously operating Christian monastery.
This long-isolated area is now being transformed by Egypt’s “Great Transfiguration Project,” a state-sponsored initiative launched in 2021. Construction of luxury hotels, villas, shopping bazaars, and new roads is underway to create a premier tourist destination.
The development has had a severe impact on the indigenous Jebeleya tribe, a Bedouin community of about 4,000 people known as the “Guardians of St. Catherine.” Residents have seen their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little to no compensation. In one instance, they were forced to exhume bodies from a local cemetery to make way for a car park.
Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who works with Sinai tribes, described the project as an imposition. “This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders,” he said. “A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage… one that will change their place in their homeland forever.”
The project has also sparked international tensions. In May, an Egyptian court ruled that the Greek Orthodox monastery sits on state land, a decision that Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens denounced as an “existential threat.” Archbishop Damianos of St. Catherine’s called the ruling a “grave blow.” The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem noted the monastery’s historic role as “an enshrinement of peace between Christians and Muslims,” citing a letter of protection granted by the Prophet Muhammad himself.
Following intense diplomatic efforts, Greece and Egypt issued a joint declaration to protect St. Catherine’s Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage, though the court’s ruling on land ownership remains in place.
Conservationists warn that the development is destroying the unique natural character of the site. UNESCO has highlighted the “intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other.” In 2023, the organization called on Egypt to halt construction and assess its impact, a request that has been ignored. Campaigners have since urged the World Heritage Committee to place the area on its list of endangered sites and have appealed to King Charles, a patron of the St. Catherine Foundation.
This project is one of several grandiose schemes the Egyptian government is pursuing to reinvigorate its struggling economy, with a stated goal of attracting 30 million tourists by 2028. However, it follows a familiar pattern seen in the development of Red Sea resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh, where indigenous Bedouin communities have often been marginalized.
“The Bedouin were the people of the region, and they were the guides, the workers, the people to rent from,” said Egyptian journalist Mohannad Sabry. “Then industrial tourism came in and they were pushed out—not just pushed out of the business but physically pushed back from the sea into the background.”
While the monastery itself may endure, its sacred landscape and the centuries-old way of life it anchors are being irreversibly transformed.
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