TABA (EGYPT)

'Taba' (Arabic: 'طابا'), is a small Egyptian village near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Taba is the location of Egypt's busiest border crossing with neighboring Israel. Little more than a bus depot and a luxury hotel (complete with casino), Taba's primary function is to serve travellers from Israel on their way to destinations in Egypt, and as a weekend getaway for Israelis to gamble and scuba-dive. It is the northernmost resort of Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.
Never populated by more than a handful of Bedouins, Taba rates a minor historical footnote as the last portion of Sinai to be returned to Egypt under the terms of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
Taba was on the Egyptian side of the armistice line agreed to in 1949, and returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1957. However, when Israel reoccupied the Sinai after the Six-Day War (1967), a 400-room hotel was built at Taba. When Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the 1979 peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had, therefore, been in error in its two previous agreements. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favor, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt later that year.
As part of this subsequent agreement, Israeli travellers are permitted to visit Taba visa-free for up to 48 hours, making Taba a popular tourist destination. The resort community of Taba Heights is located on the south side of Taba. It features several large hotels, including The Hyatt Regency and a Sofitel. It is also a significant diving area where many people come to either free dive, scuba dive or learn to dive via the many PADI courses on offer. Other recreation facilities include a new desert style golf course.
On October 7, 2004, the Hilton Taba was hit by a bomb that killed 34 people (BBC), including Israeli vacationers. Twenty-four days later, an inquiry by the Egyptian Interior Ministry into the bombings concluded that the perpetrators received no external help but were aided by Bedouins on the peninsula. (Reuters) (BBC)

Contents

Transportation

See also

External links

Transportation

Since Taba existed only as a small Bedouin village, there was never any real transportation infrastructure. More recently, Al Nakb Airport, located on the Sinai plateau some 35 km from Taba, was upgraded and renamed Taba International Airport (IATA: TCP, ICAO: HETB), and now handles half a dozen charter flights a week from the UK as well as weekly charter flights from Germany, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic. Many tourists enter via the Taba Border Crossing from Eilat, Israel and a marina has been built in the new Taba Heights development, some 20 km south of Taba, and which has frequent ferry sailings to Aqaba in Jordan, although these are restricted to tourists on organised tours.

See also

★ Taba Border Crossing

★ Taba International Airport

★ 2004 Sinai bombings

★ Hilton Taba

External links

★ on Wikitravel

★ TabaHeights.info

★ Taba at Google Earth