The Sinai Peninsula desert (Picture: Google Maps)

A trek into the middle of the desert may not sound very appealing when you could be relaxing by a swimming pool in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

But Estonian photographer Kaupo Kikkas was rewarded for his efforts, capturing some amazing snaps of an unusual sight, hidden just a few miles away from the popular tourist resort.

Here’s what Egypt’s vast Sinai Peninsula looks like from space.

The International Space Station above Sinai (Picture: AP)

The triangular area is 60,000km2 and links the continents of Asia and Africa.


More than ten years ago a French visitor decided it would be the perfect location for his bizarre project, according to Kikkas.



You can see the outline of what he created at the bottom of a desert mountain range below on Google Maps.

He decided to build a cinema in the middle of the desert, Kikkas explains on his blog, and went to Cairo to buy everything he needed from an old theatre.

However things didn’t exactly go according to plan.

The End of the World cinema (Picture: HotSpot Media / Kaupo Kikkas)

‘At the premiere evening everything went wrong,’ adds Kikkas. ‘Their electricity generator was sabotaged and no movies were ever screened.’

The cinema was built over ten years ago (Picture: HotSpot Media / Kaupo Kikkas)

There is speculation local authorities were unhappy with the project and may have sabotaged it.

The abandoned and weathered 150 wooden seats are still in place and are now referred to as the End of the World Cinema.

Read Kaupo Kikkas’ blog here.