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.
