The Red Sea resort on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula will be protected by a concrete wall built recently by Egypt. According to media reports, the 36-kilometer concrete and wire barrier encircling Sharm el-Sheikh will help protect tourism.
The Southern Sinai authorities too are hopeful of revitalizing tourism after it was badly impacted with various issues since 2011. Egypt’s tourism on the whole saw a downward trend after Egypt’s 2011 uprising, the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Sinai in 2015 and the on going coronavirus pandemic. Also, not to forget the bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh that killed dozens in one of Egypt's deadliest militant attacks in 2005.
So, the new protective wall will act as a security barrier, and those entering the city by road will have to pass through one of four gates equipped with cameras and scanners. The wall itself is made of concrete slabs with stretches of wire fencing, with some of the slabs marked with black peace symbols.
The wall also separates the resort from the desert around it. Sharm el-Sheikh is about 360 km south of Sinai's northern, Mediterranean coast, where an insurgency by Islamist militants has been concentrated. The distance between them is huge and there is great security with Egypt's Second Army securing the North Sinai, and the Third Army securing South Sinai. In addition, visitors will be searched, security cameras will identify them, and vehicles will go through a scan.
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