The western boundary of Sinai is ecologically diverse as is Sinai itself. Routes into, and
out of, Sinai are the limiting factors on human movement. The Sinai peninsula covers 61,000
sq. km and, being part of Egypt, is politically part of modern Africa. The completion of the
Suez Canal in 1869 created a water boundary. Sinai—at a maximum 210 km from west to
east—is ecologically an extension of the eastern desert of Egypt and its link to the Negev
desert (and on the north to the Gaza Strip). The western land “boundary” of Sinai is across
a range of different areas, from north to south: