{"id":17318,"date":"2025-12-06T12:54:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=17318"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:54:57","slug":"the-saint-catherine-we-knew-is-gone-egyptian-locals-say-of-sinai-mountain-megaproject","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=17318","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Saint Catherine we knew is gone,\u2019 Egyptian locals say of Sinai mountain megaproject"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/12\/05\/926422b3-3011-4e28-bf6b-d4c08b29e49e_9f0ddfdb.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Atop one of Egypt\u2019s Sinai mountains, near where the three Abrahamic faiths say God spoke with Moses, another unmistakable sound rings out: the incessant drilling of construction work.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Heritage experts and locals say the state\u2019s bulldozers have already damaged the nature reserve and <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Unesco World Heritage<\/span> site, home to the world\u2019s oldest functioning Christian monastery and the Bedouin tribe, who fear for their ancestral land.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe Saint Catherine we knew is gone. The next generation will only know these buildings,\u201d says a veteran hiking guide from the Jabaliya tribe, as a five-star hotel looms overhead and the beeps of a reversing bulldozer drown out the songbirds.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Like others interviewed about the nearly US$300 million \u201cGreat Transfiguration\u201d, or \u201cRevelation of Saint Catherine\u201d project, he requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe should call this what it is, which is the disfigurement and destruction [of the site],\u201d says John Grainger, the former manager of the European Union\u2019s Saint Catherine protectorate project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3335279\/saint-catherine-we-knew-gone-egyptian-locals-say-sinai-mountain-megaproject?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atop one of Egypt\u2019s Sinai mountains, near where the three Abrahamic faiths say God spoke with Moses, another unmistakable sound rings out: the incessant drilling&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[11903,7941,3160,2037,11904,7909,11902,7555],"class_list":["post-17318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-catherine","tag-egyptian","tag-knew","tag-locals","tag-megaproject","tag-mountain","tag-saint","tag-sinai","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}