By World Heritage Watch –
Reports on Ongoing Construction and Road Development in the Saint Catherine Area.
This note is submitted as a supplementary update to the serious concerns already raised in the 2024 and 2025 World Heritage Watch reports on the physical transformation of the landscape within the Saint Catherine Area World Heritage Site and consequent damage to the Site’s OUVs, through the Great Transfiguration Project / Revelation Initiative.
The purpose of the note is to draw attention to fact that developments apparently continue within the Site in contravention of the State Party’s commitments and the WHC’s Decision 45 COM 7B.138 which requested that “Further developments included in the ‘Great Revelation Initiative – the Land Peace’ be halted” until a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) is undertaken.
While it has proved difficult to obtain supporting documentation or photographs from the Site for reasons addressed in earlier reports, anecdotal evidence shows that development has continued within the WH Site since the 2025 report, without regard to the consequent negative impacts on the Site’s Outstanding Universal Values.
Two developments that have been reported by an anonymous and unverified local source are examples of the continued development.
- The construction of a new and extended checkpoint near Nabi Saleh together with a new approach highway connected to the revamped airport. Though the airport lies outside the boundaries of the WH Site the highway has cut through natural landscapes within the inscribed property.
- A large compound with thick concrete walls has been erected within the Milga Bedouin village, visually and physically impacting this cultural landscape. The purpose of this compound remains unknown, but it is locally speculated it may be a base station for a téléphérique to the summit of Abbas Pasha.
Publicly accessible satellite imagery of the Site is historical and does not show these developments. This note does not provide evidence of the function or operation of these structures but wishes to draw attention to the ongoing impact of these reported constructions and new road alignments. These recent developments need investigation as part of a wider UNESCO mission to assess the cumulative physical transformation of the Saint Catherine Area World Heritage Site and the living cultural landscape of the Jabaliya Bedouin community.
Recommendation
The 2021 UNESCO Advisory Mission to Egypt did not visit the property, a missed opportunity for averting the present situation. In the light of the above, it is now urgently recommended that a Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Site is conducted as a matter of priority to avert further impacts on the Site’s OUVs and for the mitigation of these impacts.
