The Sinai Trail is Egypt’s 1st long distance hiking trail. Running nearly 250km from the Gulf of Aqaba to the highlands of St Katherine – the ‘Roof of Egypt – it connects old trade, travel and pilgrimage routes through one of the Middle East’s most iconic wildernesses. People have followed these old ways of the Sinai for centuries, passing between Africa and Asia; today, the Sinai Trail preserves this ancient tradition of movement across the peninsula in the modern era. The trail launched in late 2015, following a year of development; it has attracted hundreds of hikers, it is creating jobs and a small, sustainable economy for local communities, and has received international awards and recognition. In 2016, the Sinai Trail won a BGTW Tourism Award, as the best new project in the Wider World. In 2017, the project was listed one of the greatest six new trails in the world by Wanderlust Magazine. Three Bedouin tribes built the Sinai Trail; the Tarabin, Muzeina and Jebeleya. Members of these tribes manage the trail in a small, intertribal cooperative; each tribe manages a particular part of the Sinai Trail and decisions that affect the whole trail are taken collectively.
