<< Back   Printer Friendly Page  PDF

Red Sea - Hurghada - Luxor

Not many places in the world can capture your imagination in as many ways as the Red Sea. It derives its name from the explosive growth of a blue algae, Trichodesmium erythraeum, that notwithstanding its name, every so many years, dyes the normally blue-green water of the Red Sea an orange-red.

Surrounded by awe inspiring desert scenery home to some of humans' most ancient and remarkable civilisations, the Red Sea with its unique underwater treasures exists thanks to a geological miracle. 

Despite the harsh desert climate with its lack of water and with its strong winds, humans have joined many plants and animals in their effort to make a living along the shores of the Red Sea. Ever since Antiquity, local costal communities rely mainly on fishing, while Bedouins live from herding and from the management of the scarce water sources inland.  The Red Sea was also situated at the most important commercial cross-road between north and south, east and west, and ancient traders coming by sea from as far as India and China travelled through it on their way to the Nile, to Sinai, and to the Mediterranean.

For the last three decades another type of traveller has, first slowly and lately very fast, discovered the coast of the Red Sea, the tourist. The countries around the Red Sea not only offer remarkable historical, cultural and naturalist interests, but also unique diving, optimal winds for windsurfers, and sandy beaches with palm trees under an ever blue sky for sun seekers. Especially the last ten years have seen a very rapid development of tourism infrastructure all along the coasts of Sinai and the Egyptian mainland, while Saudi Arabia is slowly opening to tourism and the Sudanese reefs are visited by a yearly increasing number of liveaboards. 

The road of environmental protection is long, winding and neverending, but especially Jordan and Egypt have been making serious efforts to preserve their natural resources and to remedy damages that have already been done in the past. Most of the Egyptian Red Sea coast and all of the off shore islands are now either a National Park, a Nature Reserve, or a Red Sea Protectorat with strict rules of environmental behaviour for visitors. We hope you adhere to them and help us to preserve this most amazing of all seas.

Last Offers