Sinai Liberation Day in Egypt (25/04)

On April 25, Egypt celebrates the public holiday — Sinai Liberation Day.

Sinai — is Egypt and not Egypt at the same time. Actually, Egypt — is the agricultural areas of the Nile Valley and Delta. And here is a — desert, with rare tiny oases and wells, sands in the north and mountains in the south. By the way, it will be said that Sinai, unlike the rest of Egypt, lies in Asia, and not in Africa.

The Sinai Peninsula begins immediately behind the Suez Canal —, just some 120 kilometers from Cairo. But for centuries it was considered a distant periphery. The Egyptians, with their peasant habits, could not understand what benefit could be derived from 60 thousand square kilometers of sand and stone: no water, no arable land. The honor of the «second discovery» Sinai belongs to the... Israelis.

During the «six-day war» of 1967, Israeli troops captured the entire Sinai Peninsula as far as the Suez Canal. The Israelis quickly realized: while their own territory, stretching mainly along the Mediterranean Sea, has cold winds and rains, the Red Sea, southern coast of Sinai — is warm and sunny. And they began to create tourism infrastructure there. The first hotels in Sharm al-Sheikh, Dahab and Nuweib were built by the Israelis.

Sharm al-Sheikh resorts in Sinai (Photo: slava296, licensed from Shutterstock.com)

In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty that required the Israelis to withdraw from Sinai within three years. But lovers of the warm sea and hot sun were right. Israelis received the right to enter South Sinai as far as Sharm al-Sheikh without a visa for up to 15 days. And they willingly use this right.

In towns on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba there are always a lot of cars with Israeli license plates, and the menu in restaurants is always written in Hebrew.

On April 25, 1982, Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from Sinai, and the day became a national holiday in Egypt.

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