Saint Catherine to become largest eco-friendly city by end of 2021

11 / 04 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

Saint Catherine will be developed to become the largest eco-friendly city in the world by the end of 2021, South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda has said.

The state is implementing the Greatest Transfiguration Project in Saint Catherine to become a destination to environmental and spiritual tourism.

Saint Catherine will become a unique area in the world with the distinguished environmental, spiritual, heritage and cultural aspects.

The Greater Transfiguration Project will develop the Monastery of Saint Catherine, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in cooperation with stakeholders in the region.

The city of Saint Catherine is located in South Sinai amid a mountain range, the most famous of which is Jabal Mousa as well as Mount Catherine, and the Monastery of Saint Catherine is one of the oldest in the world.

Saint Catherine protectorate is one of the most important natural protectorates in Egypt and the state is exerting painstaking efforts to protect the natural and cultural heritage there.

The project is meant to establish a spiritual shrine on the mountains surrounding the Holy Valley in light of the city’s position, which represented a destination for spiritual tourism and provided tourism and entertainment services to visitors.

The project will link the city with the rest of the extended coastal area between El-Tor, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab.

As South Sinai is cherishing global trend for going green, the state has previously announced plans to develop Sharm El Sheikh to become a green city.

Sharm El Sheikh also turning to “green city”:

In the end of 2019, the Egyptian Ministry of Environment joined hands with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to transform Sharm El Sheikh into a “green city”.

Under this drive, the city planned to establish a factory to manufacture environmentally-friendly paper bags with coincidence of a ban on shipping plastic bags into the city.

Moreover, the city also was scheduled to witness the construction of a power plant to generate electricity using solar energy.