Travel to Sharm El Sheikh

Sharm El Sheikh occupies one of the most geologically significant positions on Earth, the precise point where the Red Sea splits into the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The convergence of these water bodies generates powerful tidal currents that sweep nutrients across the reef systems, supporting marine biodiversity densities that few other tropical waters can match. This three-way junction also creates the deep underwater walls and precipitous drop-offs that define Sharm’s most celebrated dive sites, where the seabed can plunge from shallow reef to 800 meters within a few fin kicks.

The city transformed from an isolated Bedouin fishing settlement to a resort destination after the 1982 Camp David return of Sinai to Egyptian sovereignty following 15 years of Israeli occupation. President Hosni Mubarak designated it the City of Peace, and it has since hosted international diplomatic summits including the 1999 Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Today approximately 77,000 permanent residents share the coast with millions of annual visitors. The town centers on Naama Bay, 10 kilometers from the airport, with the Old Market district retaining traces of the original settlement alongside the modern hotel corridor stretching south toward Ras Mohammed.

Ras Mohammed National Park represents Egypt’s most significant conservation achievement, the nation’s first protected marine reserve established in 1983 to safeguard coral ecosystems that had sustained centuries of fishing pressure from local communities and increasingly from commercial trawlers. The park encompasses 480 square kilometers of land and sea at the Sinai Peninsula’s southernmost point, protecting reef systems where live coral coverage reaches 90% in managed zones compared to just 20–30% in unprotected waters nearby. The 2018 IUCN Green List certification, the first awarded to any marine protected area in Africa or the Middle East, recognized the management practices that have maintained these results over four decades.

The park’s underwater topography centers on Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, twin coral pillars perched on a precipice plunging over 800 meters into deep water. These sites harbor over 220 species of hard and soft corals, 1,000 fish species with 20% endemic to the Red Sea, and critical nesting habitat for endangered hawksbill and green sea turtles. Porcelain bathroom fixtures from the cargo ship Yolanda, which sank on the reef in 1980, scatter across the seabed alongside patrolling Napoleon wrasse. In June and July, spawning aggregations of red snapper and unicornfish converge at Shark Reef in one of the Red Sea’s most concentrated annual marine events.

Rising 2,285 meters above sea level, Mount Sinai, known to Muslims as Jebel Musa and to local Bedouin as Jebel al-Tor, holds significance for three world religions as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The mountain anchors the UNESCO World Heritage Saint Catherine Area, which encompasses the peak, the surrounding granite range with its distinctive red and grey stone formations, and the monastery at its base. The predawn trek to the summit ascends through the night along either the gradual camel path favored by most visitors or the steeper Steps of Repentance, approximately 3,750 stone steps carved by monks as an act of penance, to reach the top as sunrise illuminates the surrounding peaks.

St. Catherine’s Monastery stands as the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, constructed between 548 and 565 AD by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I around what tradition holds to be the Burning Bush. Its fortress walls enclose the 6th-century Church of the Transfiguration with its original apse mosaic of the Transfiguration of Christ, the world’s largest collection of early Byzantine icons with some dating to the 5th century, and a library housing over 3,300 manuscripts second only to the Vatican in significance. A small mosque within the walls, built in the 11th century, reflects centuries of coexistence between faiths in this remote desert setting.