CAIRO — Social media activists passed around a rumor in November 2019 that the Egyptian government was planning to build a 7-meter-high (23-feet-high) steel wall around the new administrative capital, which the state is building in eastern Cairo, but the government quickly denied this rumor. However, the state did end up setting up another barrier, around the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, in the south Sinai governorate, made up of a concrete wall and wire fencing.

On Feb. 9, Gov. of the south Sinai Peninsula Khaled Fouda released a press statement announcing that Sharm el-Sheikh, the most important and most famous tourist resort in south Sinai and on the Red Sea, has been completely surrounded by a wire fence, extending over some concrete columns, 36 kilometers (22 miles) long and 6 meters (20 feet) high, pointing out that the wall aims to ensure the security and protection of tourists and residents in Sharm el-Sheikh.

News about the wall being finished sparked angry reactions among some citizens, residents and workers in Sharm el-Sheikh, as well as social media activists.

Mohammed Fakhry, a journalist for Al-Gomhuria newspaper, posted on Facebook on Feb. 11, “With the wall around Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt has become the first country in the world to build an internal separation wall between the cities of one state, without war, occupation or division. European countries have torn down all walls and barriers on the borders between countries and we are building them within the same state between cities and governorates.”