Taba (Egypt)
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Taba (Arabic: طابا Hebrew: טאבה , Ţāba) 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 and recreation facilities including a new desert style golf course.
On October 7, 2004, Taba's Hilton hotel 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)
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