It’s a region that has two gulfs that connect to the Red Sea, at the end of those gulfs are Eilat and Suez. Both of those locations are connected or close to historically relevant regions. In the case of Eilat it’s the Red Sea port that’s close to the entire levant. In the case of Suez it’s about 40 miles away from a Mediterranean port city.
The Sinai Peninsula is essentially the landmass that borders two worlds. Firstly the Mediterranean, which gives you access to Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor. Secondly it also connects to the Red Sea which gives you access to Eastern Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf.
How was it not as relevant as Constantinople (which only divided the much less relevant Black Sea from the Mediterranean). You’d think it’d be the richest and most important region of the entire world.
And on a side note it also contains Mount Sinai, which is a super important religious landmark for Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X happen' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X happen' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!