How will Mount Sinai – the symbolic birthplace of the Jewish nation – being transformed into an Egyptian government megatourism project alter this sacred landscape?

Next month, around 190 kilometers from Eilat, at the place where, according to tradition, Moses received the Ten Commandments, Egypt plans to open the first phase of one of the country’s most ambitious tourism developments: the Great Transfiguration Project.

New hotels, eco-lodges, a Peace Square, cultural venues, hiking trails and extensive new infrastructure are all part of the ambitious development. The project represents an investment of approximately EGP 25 billion, or around half a billion US dollars. Once known primarily as a destination for hikers and pilgrims, the aim of Egypt’s Great Transfiguration Project is to transform the historic and sacred area surrounding Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine’s Monastery into a world-class global destination for spiritual, environmental, and cultural tourism.

The vision is being promoted at the highest levels of the Egyptian government with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi actively championing and directing the project framing it as Egypt’s “gift to humanity.”

The ambitions are considerable: Egyptian authorities have set a target of approximately one million tourists a year, more than three times the roughly 300,000 who visit the area annually.

For Judaism, it is difficult to overstate the symbolic significance of this place. According to biblical tradition, this is where the revelation at Mount Sinai took place and where Moses received the Tablets of the Covenant – one  of the defining moments in the identity of the Jewish people.

UNESCO, too, defines the Saint Catherine area as sacred to the three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and explicitly refers to the tradition according to which Moses received the Tablets here.

For Egypt, the economic logic is clear. A tourist who arrives by bus from Sharm el-Sheikh, visits the monastery, perhaps climbs the mountain and then returns, contributes little towards the local economy.  On the other hand, a visitor who stays for two or three nights requires a hotel, restaurants, guides, transportation and activities. The vision is to create a tourism product combining nature, adventure and spirituality with high-quality accommodation, turning Saint Catherine from a destination visited for a few hours into a place where travelers stay for several days.

In June, the Egyptian government reported that work on the megaproject had reached approximately 97.5% completion and that the current target is to open with the first phase in October.

What Does the Project Include?

The experience of arriving in the area is set to change completely. A new visitors center covering more than 3,000 square meters is intended to serve as an organized gateway to the destination. It will include a tourist information center, restaurant and café, shops and tourism services, as well as a dome designed for screenings and immersive visual experiences.

Nearby is the Peace Square, alongside a cultural complex featuring exhibition spaces, a theater and a conference hall. The objective is to present Saint Catherine not merely as a Christian site, or as the starting point for climbing Mount Sinai, but as a place of profound significance to all three monotheistic religions.

One of the most significant changes is the expansion of the area’s hotel offering. At its heart is the Mountain Hotel, a new five-star property with approximately 144 rooms and suites, designed to blend into the mountainous landscape. Alongside it, a new Eco Lodge is being developed, with 192 rooms and an additional 56 eco-suites. 248 accommodation units in total. At the same time, the existing Eco Lodge, comprising approximately 74 accommodation units and a restaurant, is being renovated. In addition, a Mountain Tourist Resort is being built on the high plateau, featuring villas and chalets, alongside a commercial district and bazaars. It is already known that one of the hotels in the project will be managed by Germany’s Steigenberger, which currently operates 16 hotels across Egypt. Among them is the Steigenberger Hotel & Nelson Village in Taba, originally built in the 1980s by Israeli hotelier Eli Papouchado.

Taken together, these developments represent a dramatic change in both the scale and character of accommodation in an area that for years has been associated mainly with guesthouses and relatively modest hotels. At present, however, no international hotel brand has been clearly announced as the operator of the new properties. Nor has it been confirmed whether the new accommodation complexes will begin receiving guests as part of the October soft opening. My assessment is that they will not.

I have visited the monastery many times in the past and even climbed Mount Sinai when I was younger. Saint Catherine’s Monastery, founded in the sixth century, is considered one of the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monasteries. Within its walls is also the site traditionally associated with the Burning Bush. And therein lies an almost biblical irony. According to tradition, the bush burned without being consumed. As Egypt embarks on its Great Transfiguration, the question is:

Can Saint Catherine undergo a transformation of its own without consuming the very qualities that have made this sacred landscape so extraordinary?

Yet for me, much of the power of the experience has never been confined to the religious sites themselves. It lies equally in the immense mountain landscape, the isolation and the silence. All of these are inseparable from the character of the place.

And this is precisely where the controversy surrounding the project begins.

Saint Catherine is a UNESCO World Heritage Site not only because of the monastery and its religious landmarks. UNESCO also emphasizes the surrounding mountainous landscape, remoteness and isolation as integral elements of the site’s universal value. As early as 2023, the World Heritage Committee expressed concern about the scale of the development and requested that Egypt conduct a Heritage Impact Assessment.

This is the great paradox of the new Saint Catherine: the very transformation Egypt is seeking to achieve – greater accessibility – is also what could fundamentally alter the character of the place.

Upscale hotels will facilitate more visitors to stay overnight, but they also increase the number of tourists. New roads make the destination accessible to families and older travelers, but they also bring more buses. A Visitor Center can tell the story of Saint Catherine more effectively, but it could also transform a place that once felt wild and intimate into a planned and managed tourism experience.

Saint Catherine already possesses something that wellness hotels around the world spend millions trying to manufacture artificially:

genuine silence, desert, mountains, isolation, and thousands of years of history and spirituality.

If Egypt succeeds in combining high-quality hotels, modern infrastructure and international tourism without erasing the qualities that made the place special in the first place, the Saint Catherine project could become one of the most fascinating tourism destinations in the Middle East.

One question, however, remains unanswered:

How will Judaism be represented in the project?

Around three years ago, the Abrahamic Family House opened in Abu Dhabi as a symbol of coexistence among the three Abrahamic faiths. When I visited shortly after its opening, I was deeply impressed by this extraordinary project. Within the complex, a mosque, a church and a synagogue stand side by side, equal in size and status. The synagogue, named after Maimonides, is an active Jewish house of worship and is oriented toward Jerusalem. In Abu Dhabi, Judaism is presented not simply as part of history, but as a living faith granted a visible and dignified presence.

The timing of Egypt’s megatourism project for Jews is poignant. Soon, Jews around the world will celebrate Simchat Torah, rejoicing in the very Torah that, according to Jewish tradition, was first given to their people here, at Mount Sinai. As they dance with Torah scrolls thousands of years later, how will Judaism find its place in Egypt’s ambitious new development facing the mountain where that extraordinary relationship began, if at all?

About the writer:

The author, Motti Verses is a seasoned hotel expert, traveler, writer, and videographer, and formerly served as Head of Public Relations for Hilton Hotels & Resorts in Israel. Today, as a travel writer and hospitality trends analyst, his insights and experiences are regularly featured in leading Israeli media outlets.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).