About 500 kilometres from Cairo, it was formerly a small fishing village, but in the last ten years has grown into a town of 35,000 inhabitants and become an international dive centre. The beach stretches nearly 40 kilometres along the Red Sea. Hurghada has an international airport with direct flights to major European countries, as well as flights to Cairo.

The biggest development near Hurghada is El Gouna, built by the Orascom Group. This tourism and housing development stretches over 37.8m sq.m., of which 9 million have been developed, golf courses and 14 hotels, a vast polo club, its own airport. It has 10 kilometres of beach front, and is built around lagoons. El Gouna will eventually have an international school.

Eighteen kilometers South of Hurghada lies Sahl Hasheesh Bay, where a purpose-built resort flanking 12.5 kilometres of sandy beach is being built. Covering 32 million square metres, by the time it is completed in 2014 Sahl Hasheesh will have 20 5-star hotels and 8 golf courses. The Egyptian Resorts Company (ERC), owns the exclusive development rights.

The most upscale of all Sahl Hasheesh resorts is the US$3 billion Serrenia, being developed by Jordanian-owned Sbig Holdings in cooperation with Normal Foster Architectural design. It claims it will be ‘the most exclusive waterside address anywhere in the world’, with its own private airstrip and helicopter taxi service, and a Foster-designed marina to house the biggest yachts in the world.

Sahl Hasheesh has a ‘sunken city’ with ‘ancient’ ruins newly-built for the amusement of divers. There are bars, restaurants and first-rate sports facilities. There will even be a ‘Little Venice’ - a miniature version of the Italian city. Included in the plans are canals and gondolas, plus floating boutiques and bridges.