Mount Sinai
Summit of Mount Sinai
Elevation	2,285 m (7,497 ft)
Location
Location	Saint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt
Coordinates	28°32′23″N 33°58′24″E / 28.53972°N 33.97333°E / 28.53972; 33.97333Coordinates: 28°32′23″N 33°58′24″E / 28.53972°N 33.97333°E / 28.53972; 33.97333

Sinai Peninsula, showing location of Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai (Arabic: طور سيناء‎ Ṭūr Sīnā’; or جبل موسى Jabal Mūsá, Egyptian Arabic Gabal Musa, lit. "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses") (Hebrew: הר סיני‎ Har Sinai), also known as Mount Horeb, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is the traditional and most accepted identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah, the Bible^[1], and the Quran.^[2] According to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

Geography[link]

Mount Sinai is a 2,285-metre (7,497 ft) high mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount St. Catherine (at 2,629 m/8,625 ft, the highest peak in Egypt).^[3] It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

Geology[link]

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from different depths.

Religious significance[link]

A Greek Orthodox Chapel at the top of Mount Sinai

The biblical Mount Sinai was one of the most important sacred places in the Abrahamic religions.

According to Bedouin tradition, it was the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. However, the earliest Christian traditions place this event at the nearby Mount Serbal, at the foot of which a monastery was founded in the 4th century; it was only in the 6th century that the monastery moved to the foot of Mount Catherine, following the guidance of Josephus's earlier claim that Sinai was the highest mountain in the area. Jebel Musa, which is adjacent to Mount Catherine, was equated with Sinai, by Christians, only after the 15th century.

Christian orthodoxies settled upon this mountain in the third century, Georgians from the Caucasus moved to the Sinai Peninsula in the fifth century, and a Georgian colony was formed there in the ninth century. Georgians erected their own temples in the area of the modern Mount Sinai. The construction of one such temple was connected with the name of David The Builder, who contributed to the erecting of temples in Georgia and abroad as well. There were political, cultural and religious motives for locating the temple on Mount Sinai. Georgian monks living there were deeply connected with their motherland. The temple had its own plots^{[clarification needed]} in Kartli. Some of the Georgian manuscripts of Sinai remain there, but others are kept in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Prague, New York, Paris and in private collections.

View down to the Monastery of St. Catherine from the trail to the summit.

Some modern biblical scholars now believe that the Israelites would have crossed the Sinai peninsula in a direct route, rather than detouring to the southern tip (assuming that they did not cross the eastern branch of the Red Sea/Reed Sea in boats or on a sandbar), and therefore look for the biblical Mount Sinai elsewhere.

The Song of Deborah, which some textual scholars consider to be one of the oldest parts of the bible, suggests that Yahweh dwelt at Mount Seir, so many scholars favour a location in Nabatea (modern Arabia). Alternatively, the biblical descriptions of Sinai can be interpreted as describing a volcano, and so a small number of scholars have considered equating Sinai with locations in northwestern Saudi Arabia; there are no volcanoes in the Sinai Peninsula.

Saint Catherine Area *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Egypt
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, iv, vi
Reference	954
Region **	Arab States
Inscription history
Inscription	2002 (26th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

St. Catherine's Monastery[link]

(Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης) lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai in St. Catherine city in Egypt at an elevation of 1550 meters. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60100 ha / Ref: 954) and website hereunder, this monastery has been called the oldest working Christian monastery in the world – although the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also lays claim to that title.

Discovery of ancient unknown script – Caucasian Albanian[link]

A devastating fire in 1971 at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai led to the discovery of 1100 manuscripts that had been kept in a crypt below the chapel floor but which had been totally forgotten until they were accidentally discovered during reconstruction of the chapel in 1975.^[4][5] The most significant discovery was a palimpsest manuscript which had Georgian script on the visible layer but an unknown script - which was barely visible - on the underlying layer and which turned out to be an ancient Caucasian Albanian text.

In 1990, Dr. Zaza Aleksidze, Director of the Center for Manuscripts in Tbilisi, Georgia, discovered the unknown script. In 1996, he identified it as Caucasian Albanian, a script which has 52 letters based on Georgian, Ethiopian, and Armenian alphabets. The script described a language in the Caucasus that was the ancestor to the language spoken by the present-day Udis, who live in three villages in Azerbaijan and Georgia.^[6]

In 2001, Aleksidze was able to decipher his first word – "Thesalonike," referring to passages in the New Testament that St. Paul addressed to the Thessalonians.^[7] and he later identified the text of some 300 pages as one of the earliest existing Lectionaries in the Christian religion (5th–6th centuries).^[8]

Ascent[link]

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.^[9]

Summit[link]

Another view from the summit of Mount Sinai

The last few meters of the climb up Mount Sinai.

The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone.^[10] At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

x200px

View from the summit of Mount Sinai

See also[link]

• Saint Katherine city
• Biblical Mount Sinai
• Hashem el-Tarif
• Jabal al-Lawz
• Archaeology
• Mount Gerizim
• Jebel Musa, Morocco, a similarly named mountain in Morocco

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sinai

• Mount Sinai travel guide from Wikitravel
• Caucasian Albanian Alphabet Discovered and Deciphered, Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:3 (Autumn 2003). Six articles.
• View OF Mount Sinai (as opposed to the view FROM Mount Sinai)
• Information about the town of St. Katherine and the Sinai mountains
• Photo album from Mount Sinai and St Catherine's
• Contains many photos of two alleged sites, and some research.
• A Report on Mount Sinai

Map of the Sinai Peninsula with country borders shown

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (Arabic: سيناء‎ sīnā' ; Hebrew סיני) is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about 60,000 km² (23,000 sq mi) in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two continents. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypt's 27 governorates (with three more straddling the Suez Canal area), and has a population of approximately 500,000 people. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it affectionately as the "Land of Fayrouz", based on the Ancient Egyptian "Dumafkat", which has the same meaning.

The region has historically been the centre of conflict between various states, based largely on its strategic geopolitical location. In addition to periods of direct rule by Egyptian governments (including the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, and the modern Egyptian republic), it was like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and the United Kingdom (which occupied Egypt from 1882 until 1956). Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression) of 1956, and during the Six Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the October War to liberate the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. In 1982, after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from the entirety of Sinai. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths.

Etymology[link]

The name Sinai may have been derived from the ancient moon-god Sin^[1] or from the Hebrew word "Seneh" (Hebrew: ‎סֶ֫נֶּה, Senneh)^[2]

History[link]

colspan="2" valign="top" style="background:Template:Portal:Ägyptologie/Farbe1;" | Sinai Peninsula in hieroglyphs
=D58 Biau Bj3w [3] Mining country [3]

St. Catherine's Monastery is the oldest working Christian monastery in the world and the most popular tourist attraction on the peninsula

Sinai was inhabited by the Monitu and was called Mafkat or Country of Turquoise.^[4] From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai at two locations, now called by their Arabic names Wadi Maghareh and Serabit el-Khadim. The mines were worked intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable. These may be the first known mines.

According to the Jewish tradition the peninsula was crossed by the Israelites during The Exodus from Egypt as detailed in the Hebrew Bible. This included numerous halts over a 40 year period of travel in AM 2448 (1313 BCE) in the Jewish tradition. However, there has not been found any archaeological evidence for large scale nomadic wanderings from that time period.

The peninsula was governed as part of Egypt under the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt from 1260 until 1517, when the Ottoman Sultan, Selim the Grim, defeated the Egyptians at the Battles of Marj Dabiq and al-Raydaniyya, and incorporated Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. From then until 1906, Sinai was administered by the Ottoman provincial government of the Pashalik of Egypt, even following the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty's rule over the rest of Egypt in 1805. In 1906, the Ottoman Porte formally transferred administration of Sinai to the Egyptian government, which essentially meant that it fell under the control of the United Kingdom, who had occupied and largely controlled Egypt since 1882. The border imposed by the British runs in an almost straight line from Rafah on the Mediterranean shore to Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba. This line has served as the eastern border of Egypt ever since.

At the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egyptian forces entered the former British Mandate of Palestine from Sinai to support Palestinian and other Arab forces against the newly declared State of Israel. For a period during the war, Israeli forces entered the north-eastern corner of Sinai. With the exception of Palestine's Gaza Strip, which came under the administration of the All-Palestine Government, the western frontier of the former Mandate of Palestine became the Egyptian-Israeli frontier under the 1949 Armistice Agreement. In 1958, the Gaza Strip came under direct Egyptian military administration, though it was governed separately from Sinai, and was never annexed by Egypt. The Egyptian government maintained that Egyptian administration would be terminated upon the end of the conflict with Israel.

In 1956, Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, a waterway marking the boundary between Egyptian territory in Africa and the Sinai Peninsula. Thereafter, Israeli ships were prohibited from using the Canal, owing to the state of war between the two states. Egypt also prohibited ships from using Egyptian territorial waters on the eastern side of the peninsula to travel to and from Israel, effectively imposing a blockade on the Israeli port of Eilat. Subsequently, in what is known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression, Israeli forces, aided by Britain, and France (which sought to reverse the nationalisation and regain control over the Suez Canal), invaded Sinai and occupied much of the peninsula within a few days. Several months later Israel withdrew its forces from Sinai, following strong pressure from the United States, and the Soviet Union. Thereafter, the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was stationed in Sinai to prevent any military occupation of the Sinai.

Egypt-Israel border. Looking north from the Eilat Mountains

In 1967, Egypt reinforced its military presence in Sinai, renewed the prohibition of Israeli shipping using Egyptian territorial waters, (including the Suez Canal and western part of the Straits of Tiran), and on 16 May ordered the UNEF out of Sinai with immediate effect. Secretary-General U Thant eventually complied and ordered the withdrawal without Security Council authorisation. Subsequent to Egyptian actions, Israel attacked Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, starting the Six-Day War. Israel captured the entire Sinai Peninsula, and Palestine's Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan (which it had ruled since 1949), and the Golan Heights from Syria. The Suez Canal, the east bank of which was now occupied by Israel, was closed. Israel expelled thousands of Egyptians from Sinai, and commenced efforts at large scale Israeli settlement in the peninsula, concurrently with similar settlement in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights.

Following the Israeli conquest of Sinai, Egypt launched the War of Attrition aimed at forcing Israel to withdraw from Egyptian territory. The war saw protracted conflict in the Suez Canal Zone, ranging from limited to large scale combat. Israeli shelling of civilian areas in the cities of Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez on the west bank of the canal, led to high civilian casualties (including the virtual destruction of Suez), and contributed to the flight of some one million Egyptian internal refugees. Ultimately, the war concluded in 1970 with no change in the front line.

Upon becoming President of Egypt following the death in office of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Al-Sadat sought a diplomatic solution to the conflict, offering peace and recognition to Israel in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from all the Egyptian, Palestinian, and Syrian territory occupied in 1967, and a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem. Israel rejected all of Egypt's proposals, with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir insisting that Sinai was now part of Israel, and that it would be settled by Israelis. Consequently, Egypt and Syria began planning jointly for a military offensive to re-take their respective territories under Israeli occupation.

On 6 October 1973, Egypt commenced Operation Badr to liberate Sinai, whilst Syria launched a simultaneous operation to liberate the Golan Heights, thereby beginning the Yom Kippur War (known in Egypt as the October War). Egyptian engineering forces built pontoon bridges to cross the Suez Canal, and stormed the supposedly impregnable Bar-Lev Line, Israel's defensive line along the canal. Though the Egyptians maintained control of most of the east bank of the Canal, in the later stages of the war, the Israeli military crossed the southern section of Canal, cutting off the Egyptian 3rd Army, and occupied a section of the west bank. The war ended following a mutually agreed-upon ceasefire. After the war, as part of the subsequent Sinai Disengagement Agreements, Israel withdrew from the Canal, with Egypt agreeing to permit passage of Israeli ships. The canal was reopened in 1975, with President Sadat leading the first convoy through the canal aboard an Egyptian destroyer.

In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in which Israel agreed to withdraw from the entirety of Sinai. Israel subsequently withdrew in several stages, ending in 1982. The Israeli pull-out involved dismantling almost all Israeli settlements, including the settlement of Yamit in north-eastern Sinai. The exception was the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which the Israelis had renamed as Ofira during the period of their occupation. The Treaty allows monitoring of Sinai by the Multinational Force and Observers, and limits the number of Egyptian military forces in the peninsula.

In recent years, Sinai has been the site of several terror attacks against Israeli and Western tourists perpetrated by extremist Islamist terrorist organisations ^[5] (See 2004 Sinai bombings, Sharm el-Sheikh terrorist attacks and 2006 Dahab bombings).

Present[link]

Dahab in Southern Sinai is a popular beach and diving resort in Sinai

Over the past 30 years Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. The most popular tourist destination in Sinai are Mount Sinai ("Jabal Musa") and St. Catherine's Monastery, which is considered to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, and the beach resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba. Most tourists arrive through Eilat, Israel and the Taba Border Crossing, by train or bus from Cairo or by Ferry from Aqaba in Jordan.

Most of the Sinai Peninsula is divided among two Egyptian governorates, or provinces, named Ganub Sina ("South Sinai") and Shamal Sina ("North Sinai"). Three more governates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt. el-Sewais ("the Suez") is on the southern end of the Suez Canal, el-Isma'ileyyah in the center, and Port Said in the north.

Approximately 66,500 people live in Ganub Sina and 314,000 live in Shamal Sina. Port Said itself has a population of roughly 500,000 people. Portions of the populations of el-Isma'ileyyah and el-Suweis live in Sinai, while the rest live on the western side of the Suez Canal. The combined population of these two governorates is roughly 1.3 million (only a part of that population live in Sinai, while the rest live on the western side of the Suez Canal). Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinai's cities and towns reach −16 °C (3 °F).

Large numbers of Egyptians from the Nile Valley and Delta have moved to the area to work in tourism, while at the same time development has negatively affected the native Sinai Bedouin population.^{[citation needed]} In order to help alleviate these problems, various NGOs have begun to operate in the region including the Makhad Trust, a UK charity which assists the Bedouin in developing a sustainable income while protecting Sinai's natural environment, heritage and culture.

Gallery[link]

Image from Gemini 11 spacecraft, featuring part of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula in the foreground and the Levant in the background   Canadian and Panamanian UNEF UN peacekeepers in Sinai, 1974.   Sand dune and rocky exposure on the Sinai Peninsula   Mount Sinai ("Gabal Musa")   Scuba Diver at Sharm el-Sheikh   Dust Storm in the Peninsula

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sinai Peninsula

• Sinai Peninsula travel guide from Wikitravel
• Guide to Sinai, covering background information on history, flora, fauna, desert, bedouin, safaris and geology of Sinai
• Sinai Local Magazine
• The Complete Guide To: The Sinai, The Independent, 15 March 2008.
• Sinai in ancient Egypt
• Broadcasting videos from Sinai
• Images of the Sinai Desert
• Sinais Safari Places
• The Path Less Traveled
• IRIN humanitarian news: EU grant to tackle rural poverty in South Sinai

Further reading[link]

• Gardner, Ann "At Home in South Sinai" Nomadic Peoples 2000. Vol. 4,Iss. 2; pp. 48–67. Detailed account of Bedouin women
• H. J. L. Beadnell (May 1926). "Central Sinai". Geographical Journal 67 (5): 385–398. DOI:10.2307/1782203. JSTOR 1782203. 
• C. W. Wilson (1873). "Recent Surveys in Sinai and Palestine". Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 43: 206–240. DOI:10.2307/1798627. JSTOR 1798627. 
• Jacobs, Jessica (2006). "Tourist Places and Negotiating Modernity: European Women and Romance Tourism in the Sinai". In Minca, Claudio; Oakes, Tim. Travels in Paradox: Remapping Tourism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-2876-5. http://books.google.com/?id=vRrJvNXGF9cC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=%22Tourist+Places+and+Negotiating+Modernity:+European+Women+and+Romance+Tourism+in+the+Sinai%22&q=%22Tourist%20Places%20and%20Negotiating%20Modernity%3A%20European%20Women%20and%20Romance%20Tourism%20in%20the%20Sinai%22. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 
• Haubitz, Zoche (2006). Sinai Hotels. Fotohof. ISBN 978-3-901756-64-1. http://www.haubitz-zoche.de/pop_phot_f.html. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 
• Teague, Matthew; Moyer, Matt (March 2009). "The Sinai's Separate Peace". National Geographic Magazine (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society) 215 (3): 99–121. ISSN 0027-9358. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/sinai/teague-text. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 

Coordinates: 29°30′N 33°50′E / 29.5°N 33.833°E / 29.5; 33.833

Chris Martin
Chris Martin playing the guitar during Coldplay's Viva la Vida Tour in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Anthony John Martin
Born	(1977-03-02) 2 March 1977 (age 35) Exeter, Devon, England
Genres	Alternative rock, art rock, post-Britpop
Occupations	Musician, producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin, clarinet, trumpet, harmonica, bass, organ, glockenspiel, Keyboards
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Parlophone, Capitol
Associated acts	Coldplay
Website	Coldplay.com

Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is well known by fans for his distinctive tenor voice. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Early life[link]

Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher.^[1][2] Martin started his education at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and then went on to preparatory Exeter Cathedral School.^[3] It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd.^[4] After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school.^[5] Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin.^[2][6] It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman.^[7]

Recording career[link]

Coldplay[link]

While studying at University College London, Martin met Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman. In January 1998, they formed the rock band Coldplay. The band has had internationally recognised fame and success since their debut album, Parachutes, in 2000. Since then, they have released several further albums/EPs including: A Rush of Blood to the Head, Live 2003, X&Y, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Prospekt's March, LeftRightLeftRightLeft and Mylo Xyloto.

Solo work[link]

Martin sitting at his piano for a 2005 concert

As a solo artist, Martin has written songs for a variety of acts including Embrace ("Gravity") and Jamelia ("See It in a Boy's Eyes", co-written with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson). Martin has also collaborated with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline, The Streets, and Ian McCulloch. He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at the end of 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track "All Good Things (Come to an End)", for her 2006 album, Loose. The two were once rumoured to be a couple, after they both performed at Glastonbury in 2002. Furtado joked about the situation, saying that "Yeah, he's my boyfriend — he just doesn't know it yet".^[8]

Martin's fascination with hip hop was shown in mid-2006 when he collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the rapper's comeback album Kingdom Come after the two met earlier in the year. Martin put some chords together for a song known as "Beach Chair" and sent them to Jay-Z who enlisted the help of hip hop producer Dr. Dre to mix it (contrary to popular opinion it was Coldplay producer Rik Simpson and not Dre who conceived and performed the drum beats). The song was performed on 27 September 2006 by the two during Jay-Z's European tour at Royal Albert Hall. In 2007, Martin appeared on a track titled "Part of the Plan" for Swizz Beatz' debut solo album One Man Band Man. Martin has also worked on a solo collaboration with Kanye West, with whom he shared an impromptu jam session during a 2006 concert at Abbey Road Studios.^[9] He performed the chorus of "Homecoming", from West's album Graduation.

Influences[link]

Martin's and Coldplay's main influence is the Scottish rock band Travis, with Martin crediting the band for the creation of his own group.^[10] U2 has been another important influence on Martin both musically and politically,^[11] on whom he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time",^[12] in the section on U2, saying: "I don't buy weekend tickets to Ireland and hang out in front of their gates, but U2 are the only band whose entire catalogue I know by heart. The first song on The Unforgettable Fire, "A Sort of Homecoming", I know backward and forward – it's so rousing, brilliant, and beautiful. It's one of the first songs I played to my unborn baby." Martin also comments on Bono's effect on his own charity and political involvement he is even known to joke with friends referring to himself as "Crono".^[11]

Martin is very vocal about his love for Norwegian new wave/Synthpop band a-ha. In 2005 he stated the following in an interview: "I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha's first record on. I just remembered how much I loved it. It's incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we've been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up – the first band I ever loved was a-ha."^[13] Martin has also performed live together with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha. In November 2011, he stated that "back when we didn't have any hits of our own we used to play a-ha songs."^[14]

He also is known to be a fan of artists such as English alternative rock bands Oasis & Muse,^[15] Irish pop group Westlife,^[16] English band Radiohead, British pop groups Girls Aloud^[17][18] and Take That,^[19] and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. Solo artists Martin likes include Leona Lewis,^[20] Noel Gallagher, Kylie Minogue,^[21] Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams.^[15]

Coldplay performed R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" with Michael Stipe on their Austin City Limits performance. During the show, Martin called "Nightswimming" "the greatest song ever written".^[22]

Other endeavours[link]

Martin playing "Trouble" on his piano during a concert in Brazil, February 2007

Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jon Buckland made cameo appearances in the film Shaun of the Dead as supporters of the fictional charity ZombAid.^[23] Martin has a second cameo in this film as a Zombie.^[23] In 2006 Martin had a cameo role in the second series episode four of the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created comedy Extras. He also appears singing in the closing credits of the 2009 film Brüno alongside Bono, Sting, Slash, Snoop Dogg, and Elton John.^[24] Martin also played one gig with the "Sid James Experience".

Martin has been particularly outspoken on issues of fair trade and has campaigned for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. He traveled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers and view the effects of unfair trade practices.^[25] When performing he usually has variations of "Make Trade Fair", "MTF" or an equal sign written on the back of his left hand and the letters "MTF" can be seen emblazoned on his piano. ^[26]

He was a vocal critic of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Martin was a strong supporter of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, most notably during his acceptance speech for the 2004 Grammy Awards Record of the Year, accepting for "Clocks". Martin also supported the Democratic Party candidate for President in 2008, giving a shout-out to Barack Obama at the end of a performance of "Yellow" on 25 October 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live.^[27]

On 1 April 2006, The Guardian reported that Martin was backing the British Conservative Party leader David Cameron and had written a new theme song for the party titled "Talk to David".^[28][29] This was later revealed to be an April Fool's joke. Whilst touring Australia in March 2009, Martin and the rest of Coldplay were the opening act at the Sound Relief benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, for the bushfires and floods in Victoria and Queensland.

Personal life[link]

Martin met American actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2002 backstage at a Coldplay gig after the death of the actress's father, Bruce Paltrow. The couple married a year later on 5 December 2003.^[30] Their daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born on 14 May 2004 in London.^[31] Their second child, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on 8 April 2006 in New York City.^[32] Simon Pegg and Martin's bandmate Jonny Buckland are Apple's godfathers.^[33][34] Martin is a longtime friend of Pegg, having met him in 2001, and appears in Shaun of the Dead,^[23] one of Pegg's movies.

Martin does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.^[35]

Martin was raised as a Catholic but has since lapsed. In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Martin said of his religious views: "I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?"^[36] In the same interview he spoke of going through a period of spiritual confusion, stating "I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God, religion, superstition, judgement all confused".^[36] However, in a 2008 interview he stated:

"I'm always trying to work out what 'He' or 'She' is. I don't know if it's Allah or Jesus or Mohammed or Zeus. But I'd go for Zeus."^[37]

Following said interview, he released a text message declaring himself an "alltheist", a word of his invention meaning that he believes in "everything".^[37]

Martin often suffers from insomnia and has undergone sleep therapy.^[38] He has said in interviews that ideas for songs most often come to him at night, and that he also often has nightmares about performances going wrong.^[38]

Martin is a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.^[39]

In a 2012 interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail, Chris Martin revealed that he has had tinnitus for the past ten years and he developed it from listening to loud music when he was a teenager. He brings strong awareness to this condition and warns youngsters to avoid the same fate, while also protecting his own children's hearing with 'Peltor Kid' headphones.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Films[link]

Solo discography[link]

See Coldplay discography for his work with said group.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chris Martin

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Chris Martin

• Coldplay.com
• Chris Martin at the Internet Movie Database