South Sinai's overlooked capital — sulphur springs at the sea's edge and reef coast where nobody goes
El-Tur (officially At-Tur) is the capital of South Sinai Governorate — the administrative city that most visitors overfly on their way to Sharm El-Sheikh, 90km south. The town has natural sulphur hot springs (Ain Musa — the traditional 'Springs of Moses'), a long coral reef coast accessible from shore, and the open Sinai desert interior without resort infrastructure. The reef between El-Tur and Sharm is some of the least-visited in the Red Sea.
The Sinai Peninsula has been contested territory through antiquity: Pharaonic mining expeditions, the biblical Exodus route debate, Byzantine monastery (St Catherine's, 145km inland), Ottoman garrison, and three modern wars. El-Tur itself was a quarantine station under Ottoman administration — the port where Hajj pilgrims returning from Mecca were held if cholera was suspected on board. Israel occupied South Sinai from 1967 to 1982; El-Tur was the administrative center of the Israeli-administered Sinai, known as Ofira district headquarters, before Egyptian recovery under the Camp David Accord…