The area of St. Katherine has a great number of scenic, historic and religious sites. On the map a number of these sites are marked. By double clicking the site on the map or the name in the legend information will be given about the place.

Please note that trekking in the high mountain region without a guide is prohibited .

Climate

The climate in the St. Katherine area has large extremes. In winter snow often covers the mountain tops, and can sometimes even be found in lower areas. The mean minimum temperature down by the village is 1º C, on the top of the mountains -4º C and it can reach a -14º C. Winter for the local bedouins is the time when nothing moves. Everyone stays indoors after the sun has gone behind the mountains. Spring on the other hand is the time when people come together, the birds return, the plants are a fresh green and blossom, the fruit trees in the orchards blossom and the apricot ripens. Spring is the time when there are pools of water, waterfalls and rivulets of water everywhere in the mountain valleys. Most rainfall is in the winter and early spring. It can be very local, one area can have torrential rain while another area just on the other side of a mountain has none. Summer days can be very warm (over 30º C ) but not insufferable. The evenings cool down and are pleasant. In the summer white billowing clouds can still form giving extra dimensions to the mountain landscape. Many bedouin families move to their orchards higher up in the mountains. It is the busy time: watering the trees, harvesting the fruits (grapes, almonds, pomegranates, figs and more). But the climate is also more agreeable in the higher regions. Autumn is the change of seasons. Black clouds form with the promise of rain.

Geology

The upper Sinai massif, a 1300 km2 mountain block with an elevation between 1500 and 2665 meters, contains worlds oldest rocks: a basement complex of granite and volcanic materials formed 600 billion to 1 billion years ago (precambrian) which was uplifted in the Miocene (25 -10 million years ago). 80% of the mountain area is red ikna granite. In some places this granite is overlaid with younger and darker rocks from volcanic activity at the end of the Miocene. A circular dike of dark volcanic rocks surround the red granite mountains. Among the peaks created in this volcanic activity are Sinai's highest peaks Mount Katherine and Mount Sinai.

Red and black rock types create different environments. In black areas plants germinate and complete their life circles earlier. The black environments are hotter and harsher. But the black rock area breaks into smaller rocks easier, making the soil-rock ratio higher than the red granite area. The black rock area holds water after rainfall better and melting snow soaks into the soil, instead of running of the (red granite) mountain face. In red granite area plants only grow in rock crevices where soil has collected. Here the water from rainfall that has run off the granite face collects and saturates the soils below.

Dikes, a linear intrusion of soft igneous rock in harder parent rock, are more porous than the ground around it, acting as a sponge and conduit for water. Bedouins recognize that reddish coloured dikes are softer and more likely to yield water than blackish, harder, less porous dikes. They have known for centuries that the best place to dig a well is where a red dike crosses the wadi floor.

Flora & Fauna

Variation of rock type, relief, altitude and water availability provide a large range of plant habitats. There are roughly 3 plant regions in the high mountain area:

The Saint Katherine Protectorate area (4350 km2) has 316 plant species, of which 19 are endemic. 47% of the plants have medicinal, aromatic, cosmetic or culinary uses as well as the usage as fodder and fuel. Nearly half of the species are vulnerable or endangered. An unknown amount of species have already been lost in recent years. The St, Katherine Protectorate and the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants Project aims to conserve and protect the species inside its boundaries.

The situation of animal populations is harder to measure as animals are more difficult to track down. Most animals depend on camouflage, rapid escape or a nocturnal activity to avoid detection. So partly one has to rely on stories told by bedouins about the numbers of gazelle and ibex one used to encounter, accidental meetings with wolves and hyenas, stories about leopard hunts etc. It has become clear through these stories that the numbers of mainly mammals have diminished rapidly and some have become extinct.

Foxes, of course, like elsewhere around the world have managed to adapt and are even becoming a menace and pest in inhabited areas. The bedouins are complaining of foxes eating most of the grapes from the orchards and other fruits that are low to the ground, and killing chicken and young goats. Also wild donkeys have become a menace in some areas, eating plants to close to the ground so they can't form shoots and also attacking people if they come to close.

Birds are easier to detect. A common and easily detectable bird in the lower areas of St. Katherine is the white crowned wheatear: A distinct black bird the size of a lark with a white cap (the adult males) and white rump. Another common bird, the size of a magpie, is the Tristram's Grackle, a black bird with chestnut wings and a striking song.

Of the reptiles most common is the fan footed gecko, often found in or around houses, that can make very loud, intense sounds. The Sinai agama can be seen regularly basking in the sun on a rock, its head turns a bright blue after being in the sun for a long time.

The Jabaliya

The Jabaliya are not true bedouins in the sense that they cannot claim ancestry to one of the 12 sons of Ishmael. They are descendants from some 200 families from Alexandria, Walachia (S. Romania), Bosnia and Anatolia. In 527 AD Emperor Justinian sent some 100 families from eastern Europe to help build the monastery. Egypt's governor Theodosius sent another 100 from Alexandria. These people intermarried with the local bedouin tribe. Between 1517 and 1520 Ottoman Sultan Salim I sent a group of muslims from the Nile Delta to provide security for the monastery. These troops also mixed mixed with the locals adding to the ethnic mix of the Jabaliya. The Jabaliya were the labourers of the monastery , taking care of the orchards, cooking , taking care of the maintenance of the monastery. But they also developed a family and cultural life independent of the monastery. The relationship with the monastery has diminished to a minimum after Egypt regained control over the Sinai and the bedouins fell under government rule.

Today, all Jabaliya are muslims. The first who converted were in 700 AD. But it wasn't until the 16th century that all of them had converted.

Like other bedouin tribes the Jabaliya have come to know their environment well, being dependant on what the desert has to offer, acquiring a excellent knowledge of the plants in the environment and their use. But unlike the other bedouin tribes they have also acquired information about agricultural techniques from the Byzantine Christians. They have become masters in the technique of grafting, experimenting with wild and domestic trees. So actually the Jabaliya are more agriculturalists than nomads, living mainly off the harvest of their orchards. They do keep a small amount of livestock, goats and sheep, which are taken out in spring and summer to graze on the mountain slopes.

Their lifestyle, like the lifestyle of other bedouins, is changing. Many orchards lie abandoned. The people have turned to tourism as a main means of income, and many have left their home environment take jobs elsewhere. Luckily there are still many who have retained their love for the environment they live in and a love for growing and cultivating their orchards.