Editing Geography of Egypt (section)

===Sinai Peninsula===
[[File:Katharinenkloster Sinai BW 2.jpg|300px|thumb|[[Mount Catherine]] in [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], Egypt's highest point.]]
The [[Sinai Peninsula]] is a triangular-shaped [[peninsula]], about 61,100&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> in area slightly smaller than [[Latvia]] (64 573&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>). Similar to the desert, the peninsula contains mountains in its southern sector that are a geological extension of the Red Sea Hills, the low range along the Red Sea coast that includes [[Mount Catherine]] (Jabal Katrinah), the country's highest point, at 2,642 m above sea-level. The Red Sea may have been named after these mountains, which are red.

The southern side of the peninsula has a sharp escarpment that subsides after a narrow coastal shelf that slopes into the Red Sea and the [[Gulf of Aqaba]]. The elevation of Sinai's southern rim is about 1,000 m. Moving northward, the elevation of this [[limestone]] plateau decreases. The northern third of Sinai is a flat, sandy coastal plain, which extends from the [[Suez Canal]] into the [[Gaza Strip]] and [[Israel]].

Before the Israeli military occupied Sinai during the June 1967 War (Arab-Israeli war, also known as the Six-Day War), a single Egyptian governorate administered the whole peninsula. By 1982 after all of Sinai was returned to Egypt, the central government divided the peninsula into two governorates. North Sinai has its capital at Al Arish and the South Sinai has its capital in El Tor.

The abundance of life in the Sinai Peninsula may not be immediately apparent. This again has its roots in the way in which the animals of the desert have adapted to life here. Many species, mammals especially, but also reptiles and even birds such as owls, are nocturnal. They spend the daylight hours in the relative cool of burrows, under boulders or in crevices and cracks in the rock. Many of these creatures will only be apparent from their tracks and trails or from a fleeting glimpse of a diminutive gerbil, or zig-zigging hare, in the car headlights at night. Even those animals that do brave the heat of the day are normally only active in the early morning or evening.