Egypt's mountain megaproject threatens St Catherine residents

ATOP one of Egypt's Sinai mountains, near where the three Abrahamic faiths say God spoke with Moses, another unmistakable sound rings out: the incessant drilling of construction work.

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HOTELS under construction in the Saint Catherine valley near the peak of Mount Sinai, also known as Jebel Moussa, in Germany.

(AFP)

In the remote, rugged terrain of southern Sinai, Egypt has undertaken a vast megaproject aimed at drawing mass tourism to the once serene mountain town of Saint Catherine.

Heritage experts and locals say the state’s bulldozers have already damaged the nature reserve and Unesco world heritage site, home to the world’s oldest functioning Christian monastery and Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.

"The Saint Catherine we knew is gone. The next generation will only know these buildings," said a veteran hiking guide from the Jabaliya tribe, as a five-star hotel loomed overhead and the beeps of a reversing bulldozer drowned out the songbirds.