Sheikh Zuweid

Sheikh Zuweid is a Bedouin town in the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, close to the border with the Gaza Strip and lying between the cities of Arish and Rafah, about 334 kilometres northeast of Cairo. Its name honours a commander of the Rashidun army who fought in the Muslim conquest of Egypt and is said to have died on the spot in 640. A fine late antique mosaic found here in 1913, now kept in a museum in Ismailia, and a settlement called Betulion on the sixth century Madaba Map point to a much older past. The town saw protests during the 2011 revolution and later became a front line of the insurgency in northern Sinai. Its climate is hot desert, softened by Mediterranean winds.