Pharaoh Island
| Pharaoh Island | ||
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| Waters | Gulf of Aqaba | |
| Geographical location | 29 ° 27 '46 " N , 34 ° 51' 36" E | |
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| length | 315 m | |
| width | 170 m | |
| surface | 3.9 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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The Pharaohs Island ( Arabic جزيرة فرعون, DMG Ǧazīrat Firʿaun / Firʿawn ) is an Egyptian island in the northern Gulf of Aqaba , the northeast branch of the Red Sea .
geography
The island with the coral reef to the north is only around 200 meters off the east coast of the Sinai Peninsula . The island is 350 meters long from north to south and a maximum of 170 meters wide and covers an area of 3.9 hectares .
history
Ğezīret Firāˁūn is identified by Wolfgang Zwickel and others as the Ezjon -Geber named in 1 Kings 9 : 26-28 EU , where King Solomon owned a merchant fleet manned by Tyrian seamen, whose ships drove to Ophir and returned loaded with gold be. In the 8th century BC BC, well after the time of Solomon, the place was expanded by the Phoenicians .
The Crusaders built by Baldwin I in 1115 on of them en Ile Graye island mentioned in the south of the conquered city of them Aqaba a citadel . This was orphaned again in the winter of 1116. In Arabic chronicles of that time the island was called Ayla 'or Aila , like the town of the same name on the opposite side of the gulf. In December 1170, the Sultan Saladin conquered the island and rebuilt the fortress to set up a garrison there, according to a founding inscription. In November 1181, the French crusader Renaud de Châtillon attacked the Arab Aila and tried to establish a naval blockade against the Muslim troops there during the winter of 1182-183. The blockade consisted of only two ships and was unsuccessful.
When the pilgrim Magister Thietmar visited the island in 1217, a fishing village was settled there, which was populated by Saracens and captured Franks and was subordinate to the Sultan of Cairo.
The island was later taken over by the Mamluken troops, who installed a governor here until around 1320. In 1321, the historian Abū el-Fidāʾ (1273-1331) found no governor on the island, probably because the governor's seat had been moved to the city of Aqaba.
Pharaoh Island today
In 1986 and 2009 the citadel was extensively restored. Together with the citadel al-Gindi ( location ), also on the Sinai Peninsula about halfway between Nekhel and Suez , the citadel on Pharaohs Island was put on the list of proposals for UNESCO on July 28, 2003 because of its obvious universal cultural value. World Heritage added.
Because of its proximity to Jordan and Israel , the island and its coral reefs have become a popular sightseeing destination for tourists coming from Taba , Eilat and Aqaba .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Schipper: Israel and Egypt in the time of the kings. The cultural contacts from Solomon until the fall of Jerusalem . Göttingen 1999, p. 68-70 .
- ↑ a b Denys Pringle: Aila and Ile de Graye. In: Alan V. Murray: The Crusades: an encyclopedia. Volume 1: AC. , ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (Cal) 2006, ISBN 1-57607-862-0 , p. 23.
