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THE BLUE DESERT AND THE WADI FEIRAN |
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 About ten kilometers from St. katherina's monastery is the surprising blue desert, or blue valley, a unique place in Sinai .
You can reach it by car (a 4WD is not necessary) along the track which starts from near the tomb of Sheikh Nabi Sala ( a Muslim saint whose true identity is not entirely clear), near the cross-roads between the roads going respectively to the monastery and the Wadi Feiran .
The blue desert owes its name to the fact that the Belgian artist, jean Verame, painted numerous rocks over an area of nearly 15
kilometers, almost exclusively in blue in 1980 .
This was done to commemorate the peace accord between Egypt and Israel , and a good 10 tons of paint were needed to complete the work .
The asphalt road that goes down into the Wadi Feiran leads to the biggest and most majestic wadi in the Sinai peninsula . after a long stretch, it opens out onto the coast of the Gulf of Suez .
This was the ancient, classical route used by the pigrims on their way to Saint Katherine's, and it had also according to tradition, been used by moses . in the Wadi Feiran you can admire the largest palm-grove in Sinai and visit a small convent, a branch of the one at St . katherine's . there is also an archaeological site nearby, where excavations have revealed the ruins of a different number of churches dating back to the IV
- VII centuries A.D, demonstrating the ancient importance of this site
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