In Sinai there is nothing but the sea, the mountain and silence.

I did not know, when I left the camp, on the morning of that day for a brief morning walk, that it would take a whole day from me, and that I would only return from it at sunset, haunted by love of the mountains in Dahab.

The petrified coral reefs frame the blue waters, for the whole length of the coast more or less, and no pure sand appears, to form a beach for recreation or traditional swimming, except in a few places, which are called lagoons. At the entrance to the southern town of Dahab there is one, and there is another lagoon to the north, on the road to Nuwaiba by Ras Abu Galum.

I went parallel to the coral reefs, with the sea on my right and the camp and Bedouin houses on my left, directly overlooking Dahab beach. At the end of a line of buildings, the scene was vacant for the mountain, so that it appears radiant in the sunlight. With the appearance of the mountain, the unpaved coastal road appeared, stretching all along the coast.

They both attracted me together, the sea and the mountain, free of the defects of the city. I continued to go forward, but I did not know where the road ended. After travelling for an hour, nothing appeared to indicate an end of any kind. Only the sea and the mountain, but the new thing was this great number of pickup trucks that passed me on the dirt road, which was not paved with asphalt, but well-trodden by feet, or cars carrying diving equipment and foreign passengers. I signalled to one of the cars, which carried me with its passengers in the boot at the back. Everyone was dressed lightly. They had left the clothes and habits of the city behind them, they had left the computers and the desks behind which they are crammed for long hours of the day. They had left their mobile telephones, and greeted virgin nature in their shirts, short trousers and black rubber diving suits with oxygen cylinders.

I noticed that they enjoyed sitting in the boot of the car. It seems that the drivers of the area had got the idea, as they were accustomed to furnishing their boots with carpets and small cushions. At the end of the dirt road, I knew that everyone was heading for a diving place called the Blue Hole , some ten kilometres to the north of Dahab. I learnt that the place was frequented by divers from many parts of the world, to enjoy sheer diving amidst colored coral reefs, which extend to a depth of fifty metres below the surface of the water, or to train and obtain certificates to engage in that sport. The Blue Hole is in fact a crescent of coral reefs, whose round back faces the mountain, while its opening faces towards the sea.

The Sister Mountains

Along the beach of the Blue Hole are distributed a number of modest restaurants built according to the Sinai Bedouin system, reed sunshades and floors spread with local handicraft carpets and cushions. There are no seats or raised tables here. These restaurants serve divers and lovers of snorkling who visit the region, by offering quick meals and drinks. In one of these restaurants I heard the name Abu Galum for the first time from the mouths of small Bedouin girls who go around the restaurants selling embroidered head scarves or traditional trinkets which they or their mothers make from plaited colored cotton threads or from colored beads.

The matter seemed easy to me. It was said that by merely climbing the mountain that overlooks the Blue Hole and where the dirt road ends, I would become inside Abu Galum, which I can enter on foot or on the back of a camel. I chose to walk.

I have seen mountains before, in the south from Ghardaqa, to Shalatin, or along the Gulf of Aqaba from Sharm Al-Sheikh to Taba, but here it was different. The mountain here for the first time was at my fingertips. I touched it, and stood in front of it for hours, without the speed of the cars preventing me from contemplating its features or simply climbing one of its slopes.

When I climbed that slope overlooking the Blue Hole, the whole sea was revealed in front of me. From my location I was able to see the mountains of Hijaz on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aqaba.

According to geology, the mountain range of Hijaz are sisters of our mountains in Abu Galum, and that both ranges together form the higher part of what is called the Nubian Arabian Shield. This rocky shield extends north as far as southern Sinai and southern Jordan, eastwards to the west of the Arabian Peninsula, and south to form parts of Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Here I touch ancient history, I touch mountains that were born 1,800 million years ago. And that gulf which I gaze down on, surging beneath the feet of the mountain, is also old. All of them are children of the movement of the earth known as the Pan African , that internal movement of layers under the earth s crust, from which there resulted a huge number of rifts which formed the Red Sea, and separated the masses of the two continents, Asia and Africa. There was the Arabian Peninsula to the east, and the Sinai Peninsula to the west, as those rifts were affected by the massive fissure known as the Syrian Fissure, which passes through the center of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Dead Sea and Syria as far as Turkey.

The mountains made me tremble, as the waves of the sea beat against them in Abu Galum. I knew afterwards that this geological feature is one of the most important characteristics of the reserve, since the rocks of the igneous base touch the sea directly without any sedimentary barrier between them.

This geological formation of the Abu Galum Reserve is what led to it being included in the South Sinai Reserves in 1992, as well as it being characterized by an integrated ecological system which combines a desert mountain environment with a marine one rich in coral reefs and colored fishes.

The reserve covers an area of 400 square kilometres of mountain overlooking the Blue Hole at a place called Naqab Shahin. It is bordered on the east by the line of coral reefs extending as far as the town of Taba, forming the marine portion of the reserve, while the land portion extends from the same area at Naqab Shahin as far as Wadi Al-Sukhn, opposite the coast. It is crossed to the north by the line connecting the Sharm Al-Sheikh, Taba and Wadi Rasasa crossroads, some 3-5 kilometres inland from the sea. On the west it is bounded by the Sharm Al-Sheikh- Taba road.

The coastal road from Naqab Shahin to Wadi Al-Sukhn stops at Ras Abi Galum. This location represents a dividing line of the clear difference between the two parts of the coastal plain of the reserve. From Naqab Al-Shahin to Ras Abi Galum the coastal plain is narrow and the mountains face the sea directly, representing this important geological feature of the reserve. That plain even disappears completely at some points where the sea directly adjoins the mountain.

Somebody riding a camel along this beautiful road has to walk around these rocky corners by the sea, so that his camel can pass them lightly. Indeed, passing them at sunset requires waiting until the waves of the high tide abate so that people are able to go through on foot.

A Camel from the Rocks and Birds

At Ras Abi Galum, where the coastal plain broadens and the mountains become more distant from the sea, some families from the Mazina tribe have settled down and built the village of Duhaila. So Ras Abi Galum has become a station for passers-by and one of several diving locations in the reserve, which are Taraf Al-Rih, Amid, Nakhla and Ras Mamlah. Divers who visit the reserve know that Ras Mamlah is one of the dangerous areas which require a great deal of caution when diving there. The management of the reserve has issued a special warning in its brochures, indicating that the system of caves at Ras Mamlah, which extends to depths of more than 100 metres under the surface of the sea, is an unstable and extremely dangerous system. The memory and inhabitants of the place preserve many stories about the way those underwater caves tempted divers, and how this temptation cost many of them their lives.

The road from Ras Abi Galum to Wadi Al-Sukhn is for the most part characterized by the breadth of the coastal plain and the distance of the mountain from the sea.

That day the road from Naqab Al-Shahin to Ras Abi Galum fascinated me. Instead of taking me an hour it took three hours, because the mountain there was a discovery for me. It was a mountain to be friendly with, not to look at from inside a car. It was a mountain that welcomed one sitting on it in the midst of a silence interrupted only by the swishing of the waves and the whistling of the gentle wind in one s ear. Here was the union that was a dream, to touch the rocks, to see their colors and formations, to come close to the tender green plants, full of strength, emerging from between the cracks of the rock, which I learnt later were called lasaf. And to see the faces of the mountain, expanding, forming a valley between two heights, and becoming distant from the sea, or narrow in the form of a crevice confined between two rocky walls, or standing high, so that I can scarcely think of climbing up it, or in the form of steps, close, tempting me to climb.

The mountain here, to be precise, is a range of mountains adjoining and following each other, which almost never end in front of the inadequate eyes of human beings with their limited ability. One may see it at first glance as a nameless, single, extended mountain, but later you will know that the reserve contains the mountains Sukhn, Hamra, Rasasa, Mukayman, Uqda, Amid, Qusayrat, Muhaymid, Tarif Al-Rih and Mamlaha. These mountains have valleys between them, some major and others minor, and these also have names. The Bedouins do not leave any place or creature, large or small, without naming it. The names may be a record of an event, or a description of the place, or a reference to the inhabitants of the place.

There are valleys called Umm Afa y, Rasasa, Labw, Al-Uqda, Ahmar, Madarij, Qatatir, Amud, Al-Abyad and Hubaysha.

Igneous and other rocks are predominant in the Abu Galum mountains. We know their names in our daily lives sometimes, indeed they form part of our ancient and modern history. Granite, which we have known in the obelisks and the massive statues of the Pharaohs, is a hard igneous rock. So the mountains in front of me took on the colors of black, red and pink (speckled) granite. Basalt also is one of the igneous rocks, and we know of it as a hard rock with which our old streets were paved in Fatimid Cairo. There is basalt in Abu Galum sometimes in the form of perpendicular sections which intersperse fissures of pink granite.

In Maksar Ayed, which is a place on the coast between Ras Abi Galum and Nuwaiba, kneels a camel of pink granite. It is one of the landmarks of the reserve, and is an example of the action of the factors of erosion on the deposits in the valleys, namely the blocks of tock which are carried down by the flood waters. They are not sharp at the edges, indeed they are almost rounded. Flakes have peeled off the hump of this camel and parts of its head like an onion skin (in circular form, and its rump looks smooth and rounded like that of a real camel kneeling on the fragments of rock that are scattered along the coast.

The petrified coral reefs represent another geological example that stretches all along the coast from Naqab Shahin to Ras Abi Galum. The narrowness of the coastal plain gives you a full opportunity to contemplate them.

These reefs take on the shape of flat stone benches. They may be gradated at more than one horizontal level, like steps, in which are incorporated fragments of igneous rocks like granite with its red or black colors. Everything becomes one mass due to the effect of the natural materials that weld them together, whether they are organic materials like tiny marine creatures, or minute rock fragments. Some of these petrified coral reefs have aesthetic shapes fashioned by the waves beating against them. Their beauty is supplemented by sea shells become attached to their outer surfaces.

The mountains at Abu Galum, in spite of their calm beauty, are full of life. They deceive you with their calm, and you think that you are alone in the place. But if you like it, and visit it again like I did, it will appear to you with its inhabitants. I have often seen gray wild doves accompanying me as I go back and forth between Naqab Shahin and Duhaila.

I have seen white herons on stone benches of petrified coral reefs on the same road. The reserve is also inhabited by gray herons, nightingales, hunting falcons and swallows of different varieties: sand swallows, rock swallows and crowned swallows.

Several mammals also live in the reserve. Gazelles, wild goats, foxes, hedgehogs and damans (a kind of rodent). It is also inhabited by reptiles, the foremost of which are horned snakes, bald snakes and Egyptian cobras. The geckos that live there include the fan-fingered gecko.

Plant life, of course, reveals itself more in the reserve. Mountain trees and herbs, while they do not have the ability to play tricks and hide themselves like animals, on the other hand possess abilities of another kind to protect themselves. Most of them take on some of the strength of the mountains: the wooden trunks and stalks are strong, hard and extremely dry, the leaves are thick and juicy, or very small in size, or with thorns growing on them. About 165 varieties of plants live in Abu Galum, of which 44 varieties are not found elsewhere.

Mountain plants with a harsh, sullen appearance, like the mountain itself, are also able to radiate an entrancing beauty and give us joy, as they protrude from between crevices with the brilliant greenery, like the lasaf, or appear to us suddenly in the midst of a valley which contains no other apparent sign of life. They stand out courageously, like the various kinds of sayyal.

The plants of Abu Galum, that wide world that ranges between brooding silence and beauty, harshness and delicacy, may seem to a passing onlooker to be similar to each other, or he may be surprised at their dryness and insistence on living far from a permanent source of water. The floods in Abu Galum visit it twice in the Spring, in April and May, and in the Autumn in October and November. They are the two temperate seasons, and in those seasons as well as the summer, the mountain plants bloom after they have received their share of the flood waters.

A Complete Green Pharmacy

This wide range of botanical variety represents an important source of herbal medicine for the Bedouin inhabitants of the region, who have no knowledge of doctors and medical drugs. The matter may appear easy, as we simply ask about a plant to treat diabetes, or another to treat skin allergies and inflammations, but it is more complicated than we think. Botanical specialists themselves do not say the name of a plant with certainty from its external appearance alone. Two plants may look similar in the appearance of their leaves and stalks, but the form of the seeds inside the fruit is what gives the plant its true name.

This precision, which seems exaggerated, is known to the Bedouins with their instinctive sense which has been refined by the harsh experiences of camels. One part of a plant may be an antidote, while another part of the same plant may be a poison. Different doses or concentrations of a drink made from some plant may also represent the difference between life and death.

The plants of Abu Galum also surprise us with their high degree of economy. Different parts of a plant may represent sources of medication for several illnesses, which differ according to the part of the plant used.

Several types of lasaf and sayyal live in the reserve, which also contains arak, samwa, hunayzilan, awsaj and wild radish.

Lasaf, an attractive plant, has roots which spread between the crevices of rocks. Its strong wooden stalks emerge, bearing bright green leaves, whose color and ability to endure the harsh conditions of the place attract one s attention. Lasaf is a prolific plant that is widespread in the valleys of Dahab and Nuwaiba, including the Abu Galum area. A brew of its fresh leaves and stalks is used to make compresses to treat bruises and snake bites, to place on the forehead to treat headaches. Its ripe fruit taste sweet and have a fragrant smell. They can be eaten raw, or pickled and used as an appetizer. A powder from its dry blossoms is used as a condiment in cooking. Its seeds have a flavor similar to pepper.

Another kind of lasaf is known locally as kabbar. It is used to treat vertebral pains in elderly people. A drink from the roots and bark of this type of plant is used as a restorative, and also to stimulate the flow of urine and as an analgesic for the ears and teeth. Its fruits are used to stimulate digestion, and its seeds to treat sterility in women.

There are more than one kind of the strong sayyal tree. The local inhabitants call some of them sayyala and others talah. There are also sant or gum Arabic, which we find with herbalists by the name of qard.

Sayyal is another example of a plant which has numerous medicinal benefits, through the use of its different parts. By cutting the trunk of a sayyala, we extract a gluey liquid that is used as a sedative and an analgesic for the skin. The bark, because of its constipating properties, is used to treat dysentery. The boiled fruit of the qard or sant is used to treat cracked feet, and powder from the fruit to treat bleeding gums by rubbing it into them. This powder, after mixing it with henna powder, is a treatment for a skin infection between the fingers. Boiled fruit from the talah is used to treat inflammations of the skin, and as a sedative and a restorative.

Samwa is a prolific herbal plant with profuse offshoots, which grows in the shape of a green spherical mass. You see it at a distance in the middle of the valleys which the floods have visited in the form of green spheres scattered around, with fragrant yellow flowers. This plant is famous among the Bedouins for treating diabetes. One drinks it like tea after boiling its leaves. It is also used to treat scorpion stings and snake bites.

The siwak, that famous plant among masses of Muslims, which many people use every day to clean their teeth, is known to botanical specialists and Bedouins of the region by the name of arak . It is a prolific shrub-like plant between one metre and three metres high, and its stalk extends horizontally along the ground. The different parts of the arak also are used for more than one medical purpose. The branches, both tender and dry, are used to maks miswaks, sticks for cleaning one s teeth. Its fruit is a digestive, and a powder from its dry leaves is used to treat boils and pustules. This powder is also a treatment for scorpion stings.

Rabul, jafjaf, hunayzilan and awsaj are varieties which one should be very cautious when using. Rabul, which is used as a restorative for the heart muscle, has a powder made from its flowering branches that is used as a snuff. Its flowers are poisonous to goats. We know of something similar to Hunayzilan, namely colocynth, which is available from herbalists. Hunayzilan is a herbal plant whose fruit looks rather like a watermelon, although it is as small as a lemon. The fruit and leaves of this plant are used as a strong laxative and diuretic, and to treat hemorrhoids. They are also used as an emetic, but the doses have to be defined with extreme precision, as an overdose of them can lead to death from excessive diarrhea and vomiting which dehydrate the body.

Awsaj, a plant famous for its thorns, is a vigorous bush which has thorns on its stalks and both sides of its leaves. Awsaj also contains both life and death. Its poison is in its thorns, although its fruits are eaten when they are ripe, and the dried powder of the fruit is used to treat the colon.

Places Are like Human Beings

If the mountain appears to us being city dwellers with its valleys and sands like an isolated wilderness empty of any reason for life, a person who loves to investigate accurately and endures apparent ruggedness knows that mountains contain potentials for life. The Mazina tribe, whose inhabitants are dispersed among the mountains and valleys of Dahab and Nuwaiba , including the area of the Abu Galum Reserve where the village of Duhaila is, lives in the midst of this isolated place. Its men work as fishermen and herdsmen, as well as serving visitors to the reserve, divers and lovers of mountain tourism, for whom they act as guides or hire out their camels and pickup trucks to move around in the reserve on the roads which are allowed. Their daughters and wives offer a humble aesthetic service in the traditional trinkets which they make with their hands from threads and beads which the little girls sell.

The Mazina Bedouins live a simple life on fish, goats meat and camels milk, as well as some essential provisions which can be obtained from Dahab and Nuwaiba . Sweet water comes to them from Nuwaiba . Some of them use the sweet water wells near their villages, like Uqda Well. There is a place to collect flood water called amaythilat Al-Hamir where Israel had intended to build a dam before it evacuated Sinai.

The mountains of Ahmar and Al-Sukhn, and the valleys of Umm Afa y and Rasasa are names of which I have seen some features. But they gave me tranquillity before I knew what their names were. Places are like people, we are aware of their spirits before their names.