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Hurghada (; ar, الغردقة ', ) is a
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
in the
Red Sea Governorate Red Sea Governorate ( ar, محافظة البحر الأحمر ) is one of the 27 governorates (States) of Egypt. Located between the Nile and the Red Sea in the southeast of the country, its southern border forms part of Egypt's border with ...
of
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
.


Overview

Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century. For many decades it was a small fishing village, but it has grown into a major Red Sea resort as a result of Egyptian and foreign investment that began in the 1980s. Holiday resorts and hotels provide facilities for
windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...
,
kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...
,
yachting Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, t ...
,
scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
and
snorkeling Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a ...
. The city is known for its
watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...
, nightlife and warm weather. Daytime temperatures are around most of the year, and during July and August temperatures can reach over . Hurghada is a popular holiday destination for Europeans, especially during the winter, and some spend Christmas and New Year there. Tourist numbers from Russia dropped significantly after the
Metrojet Flight 9268 Metrojet Flight 9268 was an international chartered passenger flight, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia (branded as Metrojet). On 31 October 2015, at 06:13 local time EST (04:13 UTC), an Airbus A321-231 operating the flight exploded ...
plane crash in November 2015. Hurghada extends for about along the coast, but does not reach far into the surrounding desert. The resort is a destination for Egyptian tourists from
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, the Delta and
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...
, as well as
package holiday A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the ho ...
tourists from Europe. Hurghada has a population of 248,000 and is divided into: *El Ahia and El Helal – the northern part *El Dahar (Downtown) – the old town *Sakala – the city center *El Kawsar – the modern part *El Mamsha (Village Road) – a pedestrianised street with a length of over Many of Hurghada's newer hotels, restaurants, and shops are located along El Mamsha. Most of the newest and largest hotel resorts are located in the area between Mamsha and Sahl Hasheesh on El Mamsha. Beyond Sahl Hasheesh there are the hotels of Makadi Bay. Dahar is the oldest part of the town where the town's traditional
bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
, the
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
and the long-distance bus stations (Go Bus and Upper Egypt Bus) are situated. The busiest area is Sakala, the "city center" on Sheraton Road, where there are hotels, shops and restaurants. The city is served by the
Hurghada International Airport Hurghada International Airport is the international airport of Hurghada in Egypt. It is located inland, southwest of El Dahar, the downtown of Hurghada. It is the second busiest airport in Egypt after Cairo International Airport and an importan ...
with scheduled passenger traffic connecting to
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
and directly to several cities in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. A new terminal was opened in 2015 to accommodate increasing traffic.


History

The village, which later evolved into what is now the city of Hurghada, was first settled in 1905. It acquired its name from a plant which has grown there naturally since the days of Ancient Egypt. Originally Hurghada was a fishing village. Oil was discovered in the area in 1913, and in 1921 British oil companies began its production and export. During the reign of
King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1 ...
a recreational center was built in the city, but after President Nasser's nationalization of Egypt's industries it was reallocated to the
Egyptian Armed Forces The Egyptian Armed Forces ( arz, القُوّات المُسَلَّحَة المِصْرِيَّة, alquwwat almusalahat almisria) are the military forces of the Arab Republic of Egypt. They consist of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy, Egyptia ...
. During the
War of Attrition The War of Attrition ( ar, حرب الاستنزاف, Ḥarb al-Istinzāf; he, מלחמת ההתשה, Milhemet haHatashah) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from ...
between Israel and Egypt (1967–70),
Shadwan Island Shadwan () is a barren rocky island 30 miles southwest of the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula and 20 miles northeast of El Gouna. It is the largest of a group of islands in the mouth of the Gulf of Suez in the northern Red ...
in the Red Sea to the east of the city was fortified by Egyptian troops and used as a radar post. On 22 January 1970 the island was the site of
Operation Rhodes Operation Rhodes ( he, מבצע רודוס) was an Israeli heliborne raid against the Egyptian island of Shadwan on 22 January 1970, during the War of Attrition. It was carried out by Israeli paratroopers and Shayetet 13 naval commandos, who too ...
, a helicopter assault by Israeli troops who occupied it for 36 hours. During the October War of 1973, Hurghada harbor was the target of . In September 1994 drive-by shooters killed two Egyptians and a German tourist; another German man was wounded in the attack and died of his injuries after returning to Germany. The 2016 Hurghada attack was caused by two terrorists who were inspired by the jihadist group
Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
. Three tourists were wounded. On 14 July 2017, in the 2017 Hurghada attack, a man declared that he wanted to kill only non-Egyptians. He stabbed seven female tourists: five German, one Czech and one Armenian. Two of the German women were killed. The Czech tourist died later in hospital. The attack occurred at two separate resort hotels. In 2022 two swimming women were killed by unprovoked shark attack. (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/04/middleeast/two-women-killed-egypt-red-sea-attack-intl/index.html)


Tourism

Hurghada's major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its landscape, year-round hot and dry climate and long beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for water-sports, particularly scuba diving and snorkelling. There are diving sites around Abu Ramada Island, Fanadir, Giftun Kebir, and Giftun Soraya. Tourists also visit shipwrecks such as the El Mina or the Rosalie Moller. The beach at Hurghada is busy and public, and beyond the town the coast road passes through holiday villages set in the desert. In a 2016 attack and again in a 2017 attack foreign tourists at Hurghada's beach resorts were targeted by terrorists.


Demographics


Russian residents

Hurghada has 4 schools for Russian children, which are: Constellation (), Our Traditions (), Dina () and The World of Knowledge () (the
Russian School Hurghada Russian School Hurghada (russian: Русская школа в Хургаде) is a private Russian international school in Hurghada, Egypt. It serves primary (years 1–4) and secondary (years 5–11) sections.shariah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
) process. In 2017, the Russian Consulate was open in Hurghada.


Climate

Hurghada has a
subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
-
desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: BWh), with mild-warm winters and hot to very hot summers. Temperatures in the period December–January–February are warm, but in the evenings temperature may drop from an average 20 Celsius degrees to 10. November, March and April are comfortably warm. May and October are hot and the period from June to September is very hot. The average annual temperature of the sea is , ranging from in February and March to in August. The highest temperature recorded occurred on June 12, 2013 and was , while the lowest record temperature was recorded on February 2, 1993 and was . ''Climate Charts'' shows different averages and cooler day temperatures in summer.


Resorts near Hurghada


Sahl Hasheesh

Sahl Hasheesh is a newly developed resort located south of Hurghada on the Red Sea.


El Qoseir

El Qoseir El QoseirAlso spelled ''Kosseir'', ''Al Qusair'', ''El Quseir'', ''Quseir'', ''Qusseir'' or ''Qosseir''. ( ar, القصير, el-Qoṣēr, ) is a city in eastern Egypt, located on the Red Sea coast. Populated for approximately 5,000 years, its an ...
is one of the Egyptian gateways, and one of the oldest cities on the western coast of the Red Sea. In the past it was known by various names, such as ''Thagho'' in the pharonic period, ''Leucos Limen'' (white port in
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
) in the Hellenistic and Ptolemaic period, and ''Portus Albus'' in the Roman period. In the Islamic period it was given the name ''El Qoseir'', which means "a small palace or fortress". Located between Hurghada and Marsa Alam, El Qoseir used to be an important port. Many people traveled from there to the
Land of Punt The Land of Punt ( Egyptian: '' pwnt''; alternate Egyptological readings ''Pwene''(''t'') /pu:nt/) was an ancient kingdom known from Ancient Egyptian trade records. It produced and exported gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory an ...
to buy ivory, leather and incense. During the Ottoman and the Islamic periods, Egyptians and Muslims from North Africa traveled from El Qoseir as pilgrims to Mecca. It was also the only port importing coffee from
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
. During the French occupation of Egypt, El Qoseir was the arrival point for Arabs and Muslims from
Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...
coming to fight beside the
Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
against the French army. The most important sites in El Qoseir are the fort and the water reservoir. The water reservoir was El Qoseir's only source of drinking water 100 years ago. El Qoseir El Adima, the city's historic area, was once a Roman port and hundreds of
amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
and old
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
artefacts have been found there. There are several 300-year-old buildings in the area, including an Ottoman fort and a number of historic mosques: El Farran, El Qenawi and El Senousi. The police station is also located at a historic site. The area contains bazaars, cafes, coffee shops and restaurants selling sea food.


Makadi Bay

A tourist resort located 30 km south of Hurghada dedicated only to hotels, shops, and clubs. There are no settlements with locals. The place features good sandy beach.


Sharm El Naga

A village, around 40 km (25 mi) south of Hurghada. Its beach contains a beautiful reef cliff.


Soma Bay

Soma Bay A tourist resort situated 45 km (28 mi) south of Hurghada, with various hotels including Palm Royale Soma Bay, La Residence des Cascades, Robinson Club, Sheraton (Kempinski – opening August 2008) & Caribbean World Resort Soma Bay (opened December 7).


El Gouna

A privately owned luxury hotel town, about 25 km north of Hurghada. Quiet and clean, the town consists of several islands separated by channels and connected by bridges. Besides 14 hotels and 3 marinas, there are also 2200 private villas and apartments, while many more are under construction. It is promoted by some as Egypt's
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
. It is built on 10 km of beachfront and has unique and diverse architecture. El Gouna provides diving and watersports centers, horse stables, go-karting, shopping arcades, bazaars, a wide selection of restaurants and bars, night clubs, an internet cafe, four bank branches, many automated teller machines (ATMs), two pharmacies, the El Gouna international school, El Gouna national school, a nursery, a private hospital, three marinas, a library, an airport, one of several casinos on the Red Sea coast, a private radio station, a post office, a museum, real estate offices and an 18-hole golf course designed by Gene Bates with a unique aqua driving range.


El Mahmya

A tourist beachfront camp on the protected Giftun island, 45 minutes by boat from Hurghada.


Education

International schools include: *
German School Hurghada German School Hurghada (german: Deutsche Schule Hurghada, DSH) is a German international school in Hurghada, Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of ...
*
Russian School Hurghada Russian School Hurghada (russian: Русская школа в Хургаде) is a private Russian international school in Hurghada, Egypt. It serves primary (years 1–4) and secondary (years 5–11) sections.French School of Hurghada


See also

*
Marsa Alam Marsa Alam ( ar, مرسى علم ' , Classical Arabic ) is a town in south-eastern Egypt, located on the western shore of the Red Sea. It is currently seeing fast increasing popularity as a tourist destination and development following the openi ...
*
Red Sea Riviera The Red Sea Riviera, Egypt's eastern coastline along the Red Sea, consists of resort cities on the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and along the eastern coast of mainland Egypt, south of the Gulf of Suez. The combination of a favorable climate ...
*
Hurghada International Airport Hurghada International Airport is the international airport of Hurghada in Egypt. It is located inland, southwest of El Dahar, the downtown of Hurghada. It is the second busiest airport in Egypt after Cairo International Airport and an importan ...
*
List of cities and towns in Egypt A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...


References


External links


Egyptra
Travel Guide from Egypt *
RedSeaPages - Pulse of the Red Sea
{{Authority control Governorate capitals in Egypt Populated places established in 1905 Populated places in Red Sea Governorate Populated coastal places in Egypt Port cities and towns of the Red Sea Underwater diving sites in Egypt Seaside resorts in Egypt Cities in Egypt Red Sea Riviera