South Sinai Governorate

South Sinai is a governorate of Egypt that takes in the southern half of the Sinai Peninsula in the east of the country, and it is the least populated of Egypt's governorates. Its capital is El Tor. The governorate holds Saint Catherine's Monastery, an Eastern Orthodox monastery and UNESCO World Heritage Site in its central part, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai. Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is counted among the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world and has the oldest continually operating library. Raithu Monastery stands at El Tor. Its towns and resorts include Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba, Ras Sedr, Abu Zenima, Abu Redis and Saint Catherine, and tourism is central to its economy, though the coast has also suffered attacks such as the 2004 Sinai bombings and the 2005 Sharm El Sheikh attack. Bedouin communities live around Mount Sinai. The governorate dates from about 1984, when the former Sinai governorate was divided into South Sinai and North Sinai.