Boutique Hotel with Spacious Suites in Sharm El Sheikh, Minutes Away from Sharks Bay, SOHO Square, Sharm Airport & the Main Conference Centre: for sale

Sharm el-Sheikh 

Sharm el-Sheikh is an Egyptian city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea. Its population is approximately 73,000 as of 2015. Sharm El Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's South Sinai Governorate, which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, St. Catherine and Mount Sinai. The city and holiday resort is a significant centre for tourism in Egypt, while also attracting many international conferences and diplomatic meetings.

Sharm El Sheikh (meaning "Bay of the Sheikh") is also known as the "City of Peace; Egyptian Arabic: Madinet Es-Salaam", referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there. It was known as Şarm-üş Şeyh during Ottoman rule, and as Ofira when the area was under Israeli control between 1967 and 1982. Among Egyptians and many visitors, the name of the city is commonly shortened to "Sharm", which is its common name in the Egyptian slang. The name is also sometimes written as "Sharm el-Cheikh" or "Sharm el-Sheik" in English.

Geography and history

A hierarchical planning approach was adopted for the Gulf of Aqaba, whereby the area's components were evaluated and subdivided into zones, cities and centers. In accordance with this approach, the Gulf of Aqaba zone was subdivided into four cities: Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El Sheikh. Sharm El Sheikh city has been subdivided into five homogeneous centers, namely Nabq, Ras Nusrani, Naama Bay, Umm Sid and Sharm El Maya.

Sharm El Sheikh city, with Naama Bay, Hay el Nour, Hadaba, Rowaysat, Montazah and Shark's Bay form a metropolitan area.

Before 1967, Sharm El Sheikh was little more than an occasional base of operations for few local fishermen; the nearest permanent settlement was in Nabk, north of Ras El Nasrani ("The Tiran Straits"). Commercial development of the area began when the Israelis built the settlement of Ofira, overlooking Sharm El Maya Bay and the Nesima area, and opened the first tourist-oriented establishments in the area at Naama Bay, six kilometres (4 mi) to the north. These included a marina hotel on the southern side of the bay, a nature field school on the northern side, diving clubs, a promenade, and the Naama Bay Hotel. The site off the shore gun emplacements at Ras Nasrani opposite Tiran Island is now a diving area.

In 2005, the resort was hit by the Sharm El Sheikh terrorist attacks, which were carried out by an extremist Islamist organisation targeting Egypt's tourist industry. Eighty-eight people were killed, the majority of them Egyptians, and over 200 were wounded by the attack, making it the second deadliest terrorist attack in the country's history. The deadliest terrorist attack took place in Sinai when militants detonated a bomb inside a crowded mosque in the Sinai Peninsula on 24 November 2017 and then sprayed gunfire on panicked worshipers as they fled, killing at least 305 people and wounding at least 128 others. The third deadliest was the Luxor massacre of 1997.

The city has played host to a number of important Middle Eastern peace conferences, including the 4 September 1999 agreement to restore Palestinian self-rule over the Gaza Strip. A second summit was held at Sharm on 17 October 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but it failed to end the violence. A summit was held in the city on 3 August 2005 on developments in the Arab world, such as the situation in the Arab–Israeli conflict. Again in 2007, an important ministerial meeting took place in Sharm, where dignitaries discussed Iraqi reconstruction. The World Economic Forum on the Middle East was hosted by Sharm el-Sheikh in 2006 and 2008.

Amidst the 2011 Egyptian protests, then-president Mubarak reportedly went to Sharm El Sheikh and resigned there on 11 February 2011.

Climate

The city experiences a subtropical arid climate, classified by the Köppen-Geiger system as hot desert (BWh). Temperatures are just short of a tropical climate. Typical temperatures range from 18 to 23 °C (64 to 73 °F) in January and 33 to 37 °C (91 to 99 °F) in August. The temperature of the Red Sea in this region ranges from 21 to 28 °C (70 to 82 °F) over the course of the year.

Marsa Alam, Kosseir and Sharm el-Sheikh have the warmest winter night temperatures of cities and resorts in Egypt.

The highest recorded temperature was 46 °C (115 °F) on June 3, 2013, and the lowest recorded temperature was 5 °C (41 °F) on February 23, 2000.

Economy and tourism

Sharm El Sheikh's major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its landscape, year-round dry climate with long hot summers and warm winters and its long beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various watersports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkeling. There is scope for scientific tourism due to the diversity of marine life: 250 different coral reefs and 1000 species of fish.

These natural resources, together with its proximity to tourist markets in Europe, have stimulated rapid growth in tourism in the region. The number of resorts has increased from three in 1982 to ninety-one in 2000. Guest nights also increased in that period from sixteen thousand to 5.1 million. Companies that have invested in the city include Hyatt, Accor, Marriott International, Le Méridien, Four Seasons Hotels, and Ritz-Carlton, with categories of three to five stars. In 2007, the first aqua park hotel resort opened in the area. The four-star Aqua Blu Sharm Resort was built on the Ras Om El Seid, with an area of 133,905 square metres (1,441,340 sq ft).

Sharm is also home to a congress center, located along Peace Road, where international political and economic meetings have been held, including peace conferences, ministerial meetings, world bank meetings, and Arab League meetings. The Maritim Sharm El Sheikh International Congress Centre can host events and congresses for up to 4,700 participants.

There is nightlife in Sharm El Sheikh. The colorful handicraft stands of the local Bedouin culture are a popular attraction. Ras Mohammed, at the southernmost tip of the peninsula, has been designated a national park, protecting the area's wildlife, natural landscape, shoreline and coral reef. There are a number of international hotels and restaurants in the centre of Sharm, in the area known as Naama Bay, with golf courses and other leisure facilities further up the coast.

The Nabq Managed Resource Protected Area is a 600-square-kilometre (230 sq mi) area of mangroves, coral reefs, fertile dunes, birds and wildlife.

As of 2012, nationals from the EU and the US do not require a visa for travel to Sharm El Sheikh if the visit is for fourteen days or less, although those travelling outside the Sinai area may still require a visa, which is purchasable for a small fee on arrival. Visitors are often ushered into a queue to buy a visa after entering the airport upon landing.

Sharm El Sheikh has become a popular location for scuba diving as a result of its underwater scenery and warm waters. Other beach activities include snorkeling, windsurfing, kite-surfing, para-sailing, boating, and canoeing.

Ras Muhammad National Park is located at the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula where the waters of the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez meet, producing strong currents and providing a habitat for diverse marine life. Two reefs popular with divers are Shark Reef, a vertical wall descending to over 800 metres (2,600 ft), and Yolanda Reef, the site of the wreck of the Yolanda.

The Straits of Tiran are located at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba and in a major shipping lane. There are four reefs there, each named after one of the British cartographers who first mapped them: Gordan, Thomas, Woodhouse and Jackson. In summer months, hammerhead sharks swim in schools near the reefs.

The Sharm El Sheikh Hyperbaric Medical Center was founded in 1993 by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism with a grant from USAID, to assist with diving-related medical conditions.