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Hurghada is a coastal city and the capital of the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt, stretching about 40 kilometres along the western shore of the Red Sea between the sea and the Red Sea Mountains. It is one of the most visited cities in Egypt, known for its long beaches, coral reefs and offshore islands.
The city was officially founded in 1905 around Sakala, where Bedouin and Ababda fishermen had settled beside a natural harbour. Oil was found nearby in 1913, and from the 1980s Egyptian and foreign investment turned the fishing village into a major resort, now served by the second-busiest airport in Egypt.
Today visitors divide their time between the sea and the town. Boats leave each morning for the Giftun Islands and the reefs, while on land El Mina Mosque, the Hurghada Museum, the Grand Aquarium and the markets of El Dahar show the city beyond its hotels. Warm, dry weather makes it a year-round destination.
El Mina Mosque is the best-known mosque of Hurghada and the largest in the Red Sea Governorate, opened in 2012 directly on the sea by the harbour. Its two minarets rise about 40 metres above 25 domes, and the mosque, paid for by local investors and residents, has room for about 10,000 worshippers.
Abdel Moneim Riad Mosque is one of the best-known mosques of Hurghada, opened on 24 October 1969 during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. It carries the name of General Abdel Moneim Riad, the Egyptian chief of staff who was killed at the Suez Canal front in March of that same year.
Saint Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Cathedral stands in El Dahar, the old heart of Hurghada, and was founded in 1926 on a plot of about 860 square metres. It is dedicated to Saint Shenouda, the great abbot of the White Monastery near Sohag, and serves the Coptic Christians of the city.
Hurghada Museum is the first antiquities museum in the Red Sea Governorate, showing about 2,000 objects that tell the story of Egypt. It was the first partnership between the antiquities ministry and private investors, and its star is a statue of Queen Meritamen from the Ramesseum.
Hurghada Grand Aquarium opened in January 2015 in the Magawish area and is the largest aquarium in Egypt. About 1,200 animals of 100 species live in its 24 exhibits, which include a shark tunnel, a rainforest, a Bedouin life display and a Whale Valley based on desert fossils.
Hurghada Marine Museum belongs to the marine biological station that opened in 1928 and is now the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, whose library is one of the oldest of its kind in the Middle East. Its preserved Red Sea creatures include dugongs, dolphins, sharks and turtles.
The Coral Reefs of Hurghada draw divers and snorkellers all year to clear, calm water around Giftun, Abu Ramada and El Fanadir, where wrecks such as the El Mina and the Rosalie Moller can be seen. Studies warn the reefs have declined by half in three decades, so careful diving matters.
The Giftun Islands lie off Hurghada and form a protected nature reserve, with Big Giftun of about 18 square kilometres and Little Giftun to its southeast. Big Giftun is the only island where tourists may land, and its beaches and 14 dive sites draw about 188,000 visitors a year.
Mahmya is a beach camp on the protected Giftun Islands, about 45 minutes by boat from Hurghada. Visitors come for its soft white sand and clear water and to swim and snorkel over the reefs close to shore, inside a nature reserve where disturbing the marine life is forbidden.
Hurghada Marina is a yacht harbour on the Sakala waterfront near El Mina Mosque, while the city's sea port close by serves cruise ships, yachts and ferries to Saudi Arabia. Local tradition says fishermen once met under a great gharqad tree that stood where the port is now, giving the city its name.
El Dahar is the old centre of Hurghada and its most traditional district, where Egyptian town life mixes with Bedouin roots. Its narrow, winding streets hold popular markets, the bazaar, the fish market and many small shops, and most of the city's residents still live here.
Sakala is the oldest part of Hurghada, settled by Ababda fishermen beside a natural harbour in the late 19th century, when Bedouin families came to fish and dive for pearls. Today it is the city's main tourist quarter, with hotels, shops, malls and restaurants open past midnight.
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