<P> The region's most prominent feature is the easterly chain of rugged mountains, the Red Sea Hills, which extend from the Nile Valley eastward to the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea . This elevated region has a natural drainage pattern that rarely functions because of insufficient rainfall . It also has a complex of irregular, sharply cut wadis that extend westward toward the Nile . The desert environment extends all the way to the Red Sea coast . </P> <P> The Sinai Peninsula is a triangular - shaped peninsula, about 61,100 km in area (slightly smaller than the U.S. state of West Virginia). Similar to the desert, the peninsula contains mountains in its southern sector that are a geological extension of the Red Sea Hills, the low range along the Red Sea coast that includes Mount Catherine (Jabal Katrinah), the country's highest point, at 2,642 m above sea - level . The Red Sea may have been named after these mountains, which are red . </P> <P> The southern side of the peninsula has a sharp escarpment that subsides after a narrow coastal shelf that slopes into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba . The elevation of Sinai's southern rim is about 1,000 m . Moving northward, the elevation of this limestone plateau decreases . The northern third of Sinai is a flat, sandy coastal plain, which extends from the Suez Canal into the Gaza Strip and Israel . </P> <P> Before the Israeli military occupied Sinai during the June 1967 War (Arab - Israeli war, also known as the Six - Day War), a single Egyptian governorate administered the whole peninsula . By 1982 after all of Sinai was returned to Egypt, the central government divided the peninsula into two governorates . North Sinai has its capital at Al Arish and the South Sinai has its capital in Artt Turkishy . </P>

Which two bodies of water give the sinai peninsula its triangular shape