US$800 mil in Arab investments to build new city in Sinai

Al-Masry Al-Youm

An agreement has been signed with the Arab Women Investors Union to build a new city in Sinai on an area of ​​70,000 square meters and at an investment cost of US$800 million.
Tarek bin Obaid, secretary general of the Euro-Arab Environment Organization in Geneva and president of the Environment Development Bank in Abu Dhabi, said the city would offer integrated services of clean energy projects and medical tourism.

He told the Kuwaiti news agency that the project would be financed with Gulf and Russian funds in accordance with the requirements of a green economy for the city.

 

President of the Arab Women Investors Union Hoda Yassin said the project was signed recently in the Oyoun Moussa district in Sinai, sponsored by the Arab League.

Ras Sidr flood update.

                               Public Beach #2 at Ras Sidr right of the Petrol Company. (This should be a sandy beach )                                       

                                                               Public beach #2 at Ras Sidr to the left of petrol company.


The Sinai flood which claimed 2 lives in the village of Abu Suweir last month has left many areas still devastated.

                                                                              Public Beach #2 should be sand.


The families which were moved into tents by the Army when their homes were destroyed have now this week been moved back to their newly built homes built by the Army, but much land on the coastal strip of Abu Suweir is still waterlogged.

Many pools of water which have not drained away can still be seen one month after the flood on either side of the Main Road through the Ras Sidr district, where seeds lain dormant for many years have suddenly sprouted, making the onlooker wonder what the desert would look like if Sinai or any desert for that matter sustained a prolonged period of rainfall.

                                                              Road linking Ras Sidr to the resorts to the South flooded.

The Ramada/Sinai Stars Resort.

                                                                 The jetty prior to the flood.

                                                       Both diving jetty's have now been washed away in the flood.

                   If you compare both photos above the sea level has risen approx 2 metre

The Jetty at the resort has been partially destroyed by the flood. In what looks more like the aftermath of a Tsunami rather than water rolling off the Gebel Sinai, portions of the jetty deck have been swept into the sea. The force of the flood must have been incredible. The entire end section is now gone where the fishermen used to fish from.

                                                                                          Collapsed jetty sundeck.

The sandy beach has lost at least 20 feet of it's frontage, where the sand has been washed into the sea. Just beyond the sandy beach is a large lagoon area (photo above ) now of fresh water which has rolled off the Gebel Sinai down onto the resort.

The 'Mistral Kite Surfers' Hut is now almost at the waters edge and empty of Kite surfing equipment.

Hammam Pharoun.

The road leading to Hammam Pharoun from the Main Road to the Pharoah's cave has seen much destruction although it is still possible to get to the Hammam.

Portions of the Tarmac road have collapsed and are not navigable by car or coach. The Army has built a a small detour road, but it does not, as it used to, go straight down to the cave now.

Cars and Coaches now have to park just prior to it, and visitors now have to walk about 30yds or so to the cave.

The obvious sweeping rainfall coming directly off the Gebal Hammam Pharoun has swept the main strip of sandy beach which used to have the spring water running through it away. There is however still a thin strip of beach where the springs emerge and small bubbling geysers can be seen in the sandy pools. In actual fact it looks better than before, and still has large visible deposits of Sulphur all along the sand at the emerging springs.

The after affects of the flood do not seem to have affected the number of visitors to the Hammam. When we were there, there were still plenty of Egyptian families coating themselves in the hot mineral sands, along with a few groups of both boy and girl Egyptian scouts, a few coaches of Europeans, and a few coaches of Malaysian and Indonesian tourists.

Oyun Musa Springs.

The Desert off the Main Road at Oyun Musa in portions is still flooded. It now just looks like there are more hot springs and they do not affect driving or navigating through Oyun Musa. The Bedouin Village of Oyun Musa is an Oasis on a high elevation and was not affected by the flood.

Ras Sidr Town.

Ras Sidr Town has not been affected due to it's elevation, although the coastal area, and low lying areas are still waterlogged . Both public beaches are unaffected as flood waters have now receeded.

Oyun Musa Fortified Firing Position Sinai

For anyone wondering what lies up on that hill, and what is beyond the huge camouflaged helmet on your right as you drive South towards Ras Sidr, it is well worth a visit.

On 5th -10th June 1967 when the Israeli Army invaded yet another one of it's many neighbours namely Egypt and occupying the Sinai, few people would have guessed that the constant aggression shown by the Israeli's to it's middle eastern neighbours, and in particular the cruel and inhumane treatment shown to the original owners of occupied Palestine, the Palestinian refugees would today have escalated into International terrorism on such an unimaginable scale, with suicide bombing now rife in the region and beyond.

Zionist aggression with the help the of the US military war machine, completely destroyed in a surprise attack on the undefended Egyptian people, the Egyptian Air Force in a raid that led to the invasion of Sinai and it's occupation for 6 years by the Israeli Army.

Oyun Musa Fortified Firing Position was a military stronghold used by the invading Israeli's to launch attacks on the civilian population of Suez, it's oil wells and the Sinai infrastructure. The railroad in Sinai was destroyed by being lifted and used to reinforce the Israeli bunkers of which you can see in some of the photographs leaving Sinai with no railway lines.


















The bunkers were heavily fortified and have sliding metal doors which were swung closed after every rocket launch to avoid detection by the Egyptian army at Suez ( also seen in the photographs ).



























1973 saw the retaking of the Egyptian land again from the aggressors and Egypt's Sinai was once again returned to it's rightful owners.

The Oyun Musa Fortified Firing Position remains as a reminder of the Egyptian victory against the invader, and today Egyptian soldiers act as guides, showing visitors around the site for a very small entrance fee.






















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There is a visitor centre with Israeli soldier artifacts, an observation deck with high powered binoculars which reach to Suez, bunkers and military hardware on show.

Oyun Musa Moses Spring

It is said that during the Israelites flight from Pharoah in Egypt across the Red Sea, ( Sea of Reeds )to Sinai, Moses led his people from the Land of Goshen to the Sea of Aqaba.

Exodus 15:22-26 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" 25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."


The land of Goshen, in ancient biblical times also known as Avaris, then Pi-Ramees, and today as Tanis in the Governerate of Sharqeya in the Egyptian Delta, was the starting point of the journey which took according to the biblical texts 40 years.
When Pharoah Ramsis II banished the Israelites from Egypt, across the Red Sea, it seems from historical legend the route they took was from Modern day Ismailia, across the Red Sea and landed on the Suez Gulf shore of Sinai in the region of Marah, now known as Oyun Musa, because it was here that Moses tried to find drinking water for his people and when he pleaded to God for intervention, God asked Moses to cast his wooden staff into the bitter springs, and they became drinkable.

Oyun Musa springs today is a fertile oasis some 20 km from the Suez crossing at the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel.
Undeveloped and much as it would have appeared in Moses time the springs are situated through the bedouin settlement approached prior to the Oyun Musa Checkpoint, past the village houses in between date palms which thrive in the moist sandy terrain.
During the few minutes drive through the village to the springs, visitors will see the bedouin ladies washing their goats and sheep, and tending to their flocks in the warm sunshine, and the bedouin children will be vying to accompany you to the springs and tell you of their God given powers of healing everything from Rheumatism to Dandruff.