Where is Saint Catherine, Matruh located?

Saint Catherine is located in Matruh, Egypt, at approximate coordinates 28.5675°, 33.9536°.

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Saint Catherine

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Saint Catherine

Elevation1586 m

Coordinates28.57°, 33.95°

Demographic figures from CAPMAS (Egypt). Overview below cites Wikipedia and may reference a different year.

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City facts

Elevation

1586 m

Facts from Wikidata (CC0).

Overview

Saint Catherine is a town located in the South Sinai Governorate of Egypt, situated at the foot of Mount Sinai. The city is the site of Saint Catherine's Monastery.

History & geography

History

During Egypt’s Pharaonic Era (3200-323 BCE), although Saint Catherine was not yet established as a city, the area was part of the Egyptian Empire in the province of "Deshret Reithu." In the 16th century BCE, the Egyptian pharaohs built the way of Shur across Sinai to Beersheba and on to Jerusalem. The region provided the Egyptian Empire with turquoise, gold, and copper. Well-preserved ruins of mines and temples are found not far from Saint Catherine at Serabit el-Khadim and Wadi Mukattab, the Valley of Inscription. They include temples from the 12th Dynasty, dedicated to Hathor, goddess of love, music, and beauty, and from the New Kingdom dedicated to Sopdu, the god of the Eastern Desert. Saint Catherine’s City was established between 527 and 565 CE, when Saint Catherine's Monastery was constructed at the foot of Mount Sinai by the order of Emperor Justinian.

Geography

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies the climate as desert (BWh). Saint Catherine has the coldest nights of any city in Egypt, and its humidity is very low. The highest mountain ranges in Egypt surround the town, with many smaller valleys leading from the basin to the mountains in all directions. The township is at an elevation of . The high altitude of the town and the high mountain ranges which surround it provide a pleasant climate with mild summer nights and relatively cool winter days. The nights can get very cold on rare occasions, making it sometimes necessary to heat buildings and public places. Saint Catherine is considered to be one of the coldest towns in Egypt along with Nekhel and other locales in mountainous Sinai. Saint Catherine receives infrequent snowfalls during December, January, and February, however, snow has also occurred in late autumn and early spring. Saint Catherine Town lies at the foot of the Sinai high mountain region, the "Roof of Egypt", where Egypt's highest mountains are found. The town also puts pressure on the water resources, as groundwater in the valley is from the mountains. As of September 28, 2011, water from the Nile is being transported to Saint Catherine via a pipeline, built with the help of the European Union. The city of Saint Catherine and other close towns fall within the region of Saint Katherine Protectorate, which was established in 1988. Its unique high-altitude ecosystem with many endemic and rare species, include the world's smallest butterfly (the Sinai baton blue butterfly), flocks of Nubian ibex, and hundreds of different plants of medicinal value. The region has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Area. Some of the species are endangered. Sinai agamas, rock hyraxes, and foxes can be…

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Excerpted from the corresponding Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA).