The interior of Sinai is a baking wilderness of jagged rocks, drifting sand and wind-scoured gravel pans, awesome in its desolation. Yet life flourishes around its isolated springs and water holes, or whenever rain falls, renewing the vegetation across vast tracts of semi-desert. Hinterland settlements bestride medieval pilgrimage routes, which the Turks transformed from camel tracks into dirt roads, then the Egyptians and Israelis improved and fought over. Both sides also built and bombed the airstrips which the MFO now use to monitor the Sinai's demilitarized zones.

 

As a result, the only readily accessible part is St Catherine's Monastery , Mount Sinai and Feiran Oasis , although some other, smaller oases can be reached by jeep or camel from the Aqaba coast or St Catherine's. That said, most buses from Cairo to Nuweiba traverse the Plateau of El-Tih (The Wanderings) via Nekhl and the Mitla Pass , allowing you to see something of the peninsula's interior. However, because of the unexploded ordnance lying around, independent motoring is officially restricted outside the St Catherine's-Feiran Oasis area.