Photo Essay: The Sinai Desert
The Sinai desert is a place of many colours. The green palms of desert oases; the rich gold wind-rippled peaks of sand dunes.
The wasteland that Moses and Jesus wandered has canyons with rocks so rich in reds and pinks they might be painted.
In the twilight, rocks cluster like old men gossiping or cast shadows like the ruins of ancient cities.
And when the moon rises, the landscape changes yet again.
In Sinai you can leap across canyons or walk in the footsteps of Moses. Like the Outback town of Coober Pedy, it’s closer to Tattooine than Earth.
Nice pics, I just spent three months in Egypt, even rode my bike down to Aswan but never made it to the desert. Next time!
I think we’re going to do the Western desert as well — very much into the whole desert thing at the moment, after almost two years of jungle with the odd bit of snow. Though I’m sure it will pall…
It looks like another planet doesn’t it. I keep expecting a giant worm to come out of the sand. Lovely photos though. I really like the second one – nice colours and composition with the repeating diagonal lines.
It really does! Some of the canyons are extraordinary, as well, so narrow and sinuous, that, yes, it is like Frank Herbert’s Dune!
Great photos! It looks absolutely gorgeous there! I especially like the one of the moon.
Thank you! I stuck a filter on it, rather naughtily, to cope with the combined impact of flash and slow lens and no tripod. I seriously need to invest in some lenses.
Funky moon rise shot. Took me a bit of time to work out what that was 🙂
Thank you! It is a particularly weird-shaped rock. Moonrise in the desert is actually a real highlight, like watching moonrise over the sea…
This is beautiful! The moon photo is out of this world.
Thank you! I was pleased with it. Even though I had to cheat with the filter, that was close to how it was…
what extraordinary photos. WOW!
It is so great of you to show us pictures of this historical place. It is just as beautiful as I imagined it. I give a lot of credit to the skillful shots taken.
I was definitely blown away by the beauty of the Desert when I visited and your photos do a nice job of capturing that 🙂
Thank you!
Is it safe to travel through the Sinai from Israel on the way to Cairo?
That depends on what you mean by safe, and how you’re doing it. There were two kidnappings of tourists last week, don’t know how many there have been this week: so when we took a night bus, it was accompanied by two police cars. I think you will have a problem being allowed on many of the roads if you are driving yourself, as they are very, very worried, and vehicles only travel in convoy on some even during the day, and on all of them, now, at night, and self-driving is uncommon.
The Sinai situation is largely stunt kidnappings of foreigners by Bedouin, individuals cross about family members who are in prison: but the tribal leaders do not have the control to clamp down on it fully, which suggests there may also be an inter-tribal element to it. Please note that these kidnappings are on the roads that are still considered “safe” in British government advice, not the north, around Al Arish.
So.. yes, if you’re on a large bus, you should be fine, and if you’re taking the road down from Eilat during the day, you should be fine. But be aware it’s a difficult situation. Also, there are big protests in Cairo today for Palestinian Land Day, which might conceivably impact on whether the borders are open or not anyway.
The situation within the Sinai tourist towns — Dahab, Nuweiba, Sharm el Sheikh, Saint Catherine’s — is fine. I haven’t been to El Arish — the gov’t advises not to — but I hear things are ropy there. But, like I say, if there’s a single big bus headed that way, they should give you a big enough escort for it to be OK (the kidnappings I knew about both had a single policeman riding as escort in the vehicles, who was also kidnapped).
Does that help? I can find you more info if you give me more information on what you’re trying to do. My impression is that shared taxis etc. will not be keen to take foreigners at the moment, because of the whole sense of being a target and having to wait around for police escorts &c.
Wonderful Images! Your trip to Egypt has really put it up on our list. Thanks for these!
Ooh, it gets better, Justin! Wait till you see the Nile in Upper Egypt. Insane. Desert, plus tropics, plus rapids — A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
i adore these picsss and i have a page im gonna posting these pics in it <3 sooo please guyss like http://www.facebook.com/pages/come-2-egypt/155005767907355
thanksss and Allah bless Egypt <3 <3 <3
Such beauty and wonder! Who would have ever thought this about the desert? Stunning photos.
The pictures are beautiful! I would’ve loved to go to Egypt, but because of some problems there we didn’t go.
I especially love the moon rise picture, and the sand dunes, they look so smooth! I can`t have imagined how hot it must have been!
I suppose you`ve moved on now, this isn`t a recent post, is it. If it isn`t, I`d be happy to see new ones.
I wonder where you are now; enjoying paradise in some exotic country or snow shoeing in some alp… Great to hear more, but no rush!
-Allegra, age 10
Hello again, Allegra! And thank you for your lovely comment….
Because we were there in March — as you recognised, it’s an old post — it wasn’t too hot. We could walk barefoot even in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t too cold at night either. That’s the problem with deserts, as you may well know. They get terribly terribly hot in the days in summer, and terribly terribly cold (below freezing) at night in the winter. So, for most, spring and autumn are the best times.
Right now, I’m enjoying Beirut, in Lebanon. And Z — as I think you know, I’m not with his father — is enjoying some time with his Dad in London for the Jubilee! They were in Paris before that…
You can find what we’ve been doing lately on the righthand side of my home page. There’s a little box called “latest” which shows what we’ve been up to. Although — and don’t tell anyone! — I’m a little bit behind with my blogging!
Theodora
Me too – still in Germany, but slowly increasing through Paris and Egland… My blog, if you want, is http://www.grade5onthego.weebly.com
Thanks, I’ll go and see your ‘latest’ posts now!
Bye,
Allegra
Hello! You’re a very good writer! I popped over to your blog and left you a comment, and I’ve also shared it on Facebook and Twitter, so hopefully more people will stop by. Do you take your own photos? Theodora
Beautiful – and more colorful than I thought it would be! Love that sky one at the end.
Some of the rock formations, which I almost included, are just phenomenally high coloured: they look almost like paintings. There are patches of white dunes, but both here and in the Wadi Rum, the desert has a lot of different colours. I wish I’d made it out to the Western Desert, which has black stretches, and white stretches, but, you know, maybe another time…
Beautiful photos, I had no idea it was so diverse.
It’s incredible. You hear a lot more about the Wadi Rum — which has more red in the colouration — but I’d say the Sinai (which is many times bigger than Wadi Rum) and, for that matter, the Western Desert (of which we saw very little) are much more worthwhile than Wadi Rum….