Shadwan

Shadwan (Arabic: شدوان‎) is a barren rocky island in the mouth of the Gulf of Suez in the northern Red Sea. Situated some 20 miles from Sharm el-Sheikh, the island is 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) in length, and between 3 and 5 km wide.[1] It was formerly also called Shaker Island. The island features a lighthouse and is familiar to anyone who has been to the northern Red Sea for scuba diving.

On 31 March 1969 the Island was the site of an earthquake measuring M_s 6.6 on the Richter scale. The earthquake caused some damage including numerous rock falls. On 9 April 1996 a station of the Hurghada Seismological Network began operating on the island with the aim of gaining information on the seismotectonics of the southern Gulf of Suez region. The station is operated by solar batteries and the seisminc data is transmitted by telemetry to the Hurghada Seismological Center in Hurghada.[2]

During the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt, the island was fortified and held by Egyptian troops. On 22 January 1970, it was the site of Operation Rhodes, a heliborne assault by Israeli troops which occupied the island for 36 hours.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Gawrych, George Walter (2000). The albatross of decisive victory: war and policy between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 115. ISBN 9780313313028. http://books.google.com/books?id=Da8qEtrF2sMC. 
  2. ^ Hurukawa N., Seto N., Inoue H., Nishigami K., Marzouk I., Megahed A., Ibrahim E. M., Murakami H., Nakamura M., Haneda T., Sugiyama S., Ohkura T., Fujii Y., Hussein H. M., Megahed A. S., Mohammed H. F., Abdel-Fattah R., Mizoue M., Hashimoto S., Kobayasi M., and Suetsugu D. (August 2001). "Seismological Observations in and around the Southern Part of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 91 (4): 708–717. http://mahabghodss.net/NewBooks/www/web/digital/nashrieh/bssa/2001/August%2091%20(4)/708.pdf. Retrieved April 19, 2011.