For years, visitors, with the help of Bedouin guides, have climbed Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky desert landscape, or have gone on other hiking tours led by Bedouins.
Now one of Egypt's holiest sites, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, is the subject of fierce controversy over plans to turn it into a major tourist complex.
Mount Sinai, locally called Jabal Musa, is traditionally the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
Many also believe that this is the place where, according to the Bible and the Quran, God spoke to the prophet from a bush of incombustible (non-burnable) blackberry.
There is also the 6th-century Monastery of St. Catherine, which is run by the Greek Orthodox Church.
It appears that the monks will remain in the monastery after Egyptian authorities, under pressure from Greece, denied plans to close it.
However, there remains deep concern about the way this desert site, long isolated from the rest of the world and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is being changed.UNESCO).
Luxury hotels, villas and bazaars are being built there.
The area is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe.
The houses and eco-tourism camps of this tribe, known as the Guardians of St. Catherine's Monastery, have already been demolished, with little or no compensation in return.
They were even forced to remove the remains of their deceased from the local cemetery to make way for a new parking lot.
The project was presented as a desperately needed sustainable development investment that would boost tourism, but it was imposed on the Bedouins against their will, says British travel writer Ben Hofler, who has long worked with Sinai tribes.
"This is not the development that the Jebeleya tribe wants, but rather a classic example of top-down imposition of a solution that is in the interests of foreigners rather than the local community," Hofler told the BBC.
"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic origin," adds Hofler.
"It is a world they always wanted to be separated from, one they did not consent to build, and one that will forever change their place in their homeland."
The locals, who number about 4.000, are reluctant to talk about these changes.
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So far, Greece has been the most vocal opponent of the Egyptian plans due to its spiritual and historical ties to the monastery.
Tensions between Athens and Cairo flared after an Egyptian court ruling in May that the land on which the Monastery of Saint Catherine, the oldest active Christian monastery in the world, is located, was state property.
After a decades-long dispute, judges ruled that the monastery only has the "right to use" the land on which it is located, as well as the religious and archaeological sites in its surroundings.
The head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Jerome II, immediately criticized the court's decision.
"Monastery property is being seized and land is being expropriated."
"The survival of this spiritual beacon of Orthodoxy and the Hellenistic era is now at risk," he said in a statement.
In a rare interview, long-time Archbishop Damian of Sinai, Faranah and Raif, who is based at the Monastery of Saint Catherine, told a Greek newspaper that the decision was "a heavy blow for us... and a shame."
The way he handled this case caused deep divisions among the monks and because of this he recently decided to step down from his position.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem pointed out that the holy site, over which it has ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was granted a letter of protection for the monastery by the Prophet Muhammad himself.
It states that the Byzantine monastery, which also houses a small mosque built during the Fatimid dynasty, which is quite unusual, is "a sanctuary of peace between Christians and Muslims and a haven of hope for a world mired in conflict."
Although the disputed court ruling remains in force, thanks to many diplomatic efforts, Greece and Egypt adopted a joint declaration ensuring the protection of the Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage of the Monastery of St. Catherine.
'Special gift' or inappropriate interference?
In 2021, Egypt launched a state-run tourism development project called The Great Transformation.
The plan calls for the construction of a hotel, eco-lodges and a large visitor center, as well as the expansion of a small nearby airport and the construction of a cable car to Mount Sinai, also known as Moses' Mountain.
The government is promoting the project as "Egypt's gift to the whole world and all religions."
"The project will provide all tourist and recreational services to visitors, encourage the development of the town [of St. Catherine] and the surrounding areas while preserving the ecological, visual and cultural-historical character of the untouched nature, and will also provide accommodation for those working on projects related to St. Catherine," Egyptian Housing Minister Sherif el-Sherbini said last year.
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Although the work seems to have stopped, at least temporarily, due to financial problems, the plateau of el-Raha, from which the monastery of Saint Catherine can be seen, has already been transformed.
The construction of new roads continues.
According to tradition, it was here that Moses' followers, the Israelites, awaited him while he was on Mount Sinai.
Critics warn that the special natural features of the area are being destroyed.
In a detailed description of the outstanding universal values of the site, UNESCO emphasizes how "the harsh mountain environment... presents the perfect landscape for a monastery."
"The location of the monastery represents a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate connection between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand, and the spiritual dedication of the people on the other," the UN organization writes.
As early as 2023, UNESCO expressed concern and called on Egypt to halt development projects, examine their impact, and develop a protection plan.
Egypt did not do this.
In July, a network of groups for the protection of world heritage World Heritage Watch sent an open letter to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, requesting that the St. Catherine area be placed on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
Activists also appealed to England's King Charles as patron of the St. Catherine's Foundation, an organization that raises funds for the preservation and study of the monastery's heritage and its collection of valuable ancient Christian manuscripts.
The King described this place as "a great spiritual treasure that needs to be preserved for future generations."
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This is not the first megaproject in Egypt to draw criticism for disregarding the country's unique history.
However, the government sees its grandiose projects as a solution to revive the ailing economy.
Egypt's once-thriving tourism industry has begun to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. brutal war in the Gaza Strip and a new wave of instability in the region.
The government has set a goal of attracting 2028 million visitors by 30.
Several Egyptian governments are pursuing commercial development in Sinai without consulting the indigenous Bedouin communities.
The Sinai Peninsula was captured by the Israeli army during the 1967 Arab-Israeli (Six-Day) War, and was returned to Egypt only after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979.
Since then, the Bedouins have constantly complained that they are treated like second-class citizens.
Construction of Egypt's popular Red Sea resorts, including Sharm el-Sheikh, began in southern Sinai in the 1980s.
Many see similarities between the events of that time and what is happening now in the area around St. Catherine.
"The Bedouins were the people of that region, they were the guides, the workers, the ones you rented from," says Egyptian journalist Mohanad Sabri.
"And then industrial tourism arrived and they were thrown out, not just out of work, but they were physically pushed from the coast into the hinterland."
As was the case during the construction of the Red Sea resort, workers from other parts of Egypt are expected to be brought in to work on the St. Catherine development project.
However, the government claims that it is simultaneously "improving" housing for the Bedouins.
Over the past 1.500 years, the Monastery of St. Catherine has survived many earthquakes, but when the oldest of the current monks arrived at the monastery, the place was still a secluded refuge.
This began to change with the expansion of Red Sea resorts and day-trip visits by thousands of pilgrims during the peak season.
In recent years, large groups of visitors have often been seen passing by what is believed to be the remains of a bush of incombustible blackberry, or touring the museum that houses pages of the Sinaiticus Manuscript, the earliest surviving copy of the nearly complete New Testament.
Although the monastery will survive and retain its deep religious significance, it seems that the environment and the centuries-old way of life will be irreversibly changed.
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