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El Gouna
Set against the sharp outline of rugged mountains and bordering the Red Sea, El Gouda is built on a group of small islands surrounded by turquoise blue lagoons with over 11 kilometres of beautiful beaches. The resort's centre of Kafr El Gouna is designed in the Egyptian style of inner courtyards with numerous alleyways to explore. This is a lively and colourful area comprising shops, art galleries, cafes, discos, restaurants and a post office. The resort offers something for all tastes from tranquil secluded beaches or horse riding to diving, windsurfing and desert safaris for those seeking adventure. El Gouna has recently been awarded for being the 'most environmentally friendly resort in Egypt' |
Recommendation - whether you are trekking, diving or sight seeing we advise you use only accredited tour opperators and guides.
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El Gouda Sports. The resort has an abundance of sports activities for all ages. Ranging from horse riding, tennis, golf and squash to water sports like, windsurfing, kite surfing, fishing, snorkelling, diving and water skiing. |
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El Gouda Beaches.
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Zeytuna Beach. Located on its own island this idilic beach is surrounded by lagoons and the Red Sea. The beach has hammocks, a sound system for beach parties, a volley ball court, snorkelling equipment and sun beds. There is also a bar for refreshing drinks and snacks plus toilets and showers. Near by is a 400 meter jetty, giving access to deeper water, attached to the jetty is a floating pontoon with a central floating sea water pool at the edge of the coral reef plateau. |
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Mangroovy Beach. This sandy beach is located on the north cost of El Gouda next to the new marina. During the summer months there are beach parties usually with a barbecue. On the beach are volley ball, soccer and snorkelling. With two bars and a restaurant you will not have to go far for cool drinks, snacks or a meal. |
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MUSEUMS.
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El Gouna Museum. The museum has over 90 exhibits including statues (replicas) and musical instruments, of ancient Egyptian history and art. Opened in January 1996, there are three interactive computer displays giving descriptions of the exhibits. The Exhibition Hall has some fifty-two contemporary Egyptian paintings by Hussein Bikar. You can also buy souvenirs such as replicas of the exhibits, books, papyrus paintings, postcards and modern Egyptian art. |
GOLF
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El Gouna always has perfect weather for a round of golf, blessed with a dry desert climate that keeps the humidity low and soft sea breezes to keep you cool. There are excellent championship level courses in the area each offering a different challenge. Whether you are a novice or experienced golfer you will find something to suit your game. Also on offer are golf lessons, caddies, carts, shops, bars, swimming pool and children's play area. |
Shopping and sight seeing Kafr El Gouna
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Souk El Balad. This is a traditional oriental market, with a shopping arcade offering a variety of eating and shopping delights, from cafes serving Egyptian food to various boutiques and souvenir shops. |
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El Khayamiya. This elegant arcade built beneath a cool dome invites you to browse for clothes, jewellery and the latest CD's. |
Places of Interest.
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The Artist's Compound. This area has become the base for artists from around the world. El Gouna and the EFPAC (Egyptian Foundation for Promoting Art & Creativity) exhibit at the El Gouna Art Center Bakheeta. The artists here are creators of new ideas, noted masters and talented young artists working side by side to express El Gouna's culture and charm in paintings, sculptures, weaving, photography music & dancing. |
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The Observatory. From the roof of the observatory stargazers can see with wonderful clarity the constellations. |
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The Aquarium. The Aquarium is designed to promote awareness of the indigenous marine life of the Red Sea. The Museum has a wide variety of fish species from moray eels, starfish and sea horses to lobsters and crabs. The displays can be seen in over 80 tanks. Four of the tanks are lit by a special blue light that enables you to see the colours of the corals, as they would appear to divers at night. The Aquarium is open every day, and although its capacity of 50 is small its well worth seeing. |
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Renaissance Cinema Complex. The El Gouna cinema has three screens, two indoor and one open-air. It has a state-of-art sound system, comfortable seating and first class films. Opening hours are 6:00 PM, 9:00 PM and midnight. |
MARINAS.
Abydos Marina. Abydos Marina was established in 1992 and is located in the south of El Gouna. It has the capacity for 40 boats, with modern facilitates such as dry-dock, boat lift equipment for vessels up to 16m, diesel fuel station, electricity lines, channel-6 VHF and a maintenance center.
Abu Tig Marina. The marina town is part of the El Gouna resort, built around the quayside promenade are a wide variety of restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. The marina can cater for international yachting, has 126 berths, metered electric, water, international telephone and cable television. There are also fuelling facilities for both diesel and gasoline, waste water pump out, a slipway and a high pressure jet-wash To freshen up and restock there are showers, a laundry, and shops. As this is an entry port for Egypt there is a Harbour Master, Coast Guards, Police and Egyptian Customs.
DIVING EL GOUNA.
The Red Sea could be called one of the seven wonders of the world, with numerous reefs, wrecks and plentiful indigenous marine life much of which is unique to the Red Sea. Water temperatures rarely go below 20 degrees Celsius in winter, and range from twenty-four and twenty-eight degrees in summer, with good visibility
Diving from El Gouna has its advantages as most of the dive sites closest to El Gouna are undisturbed. This area also tends to be quieter than some other resorts, making it ideal for families and novice divers. You will find plenty of diving centres running daily trips to the local diving sites, as well as other destinations such as the Thistlegorm wreck, Ras Mohammed National Park, The Straights of Gobal and the Safaga area. There are also daily snorkelling trips, where you can see dolphins, turtles, and a multitude of colourful fish.
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El GOUNA DIVE SITES.
RECOMMENDATIONS - Always dive according to your level of training and ask your dive center what safety and ability levels are required for each dive. Never Dive Alone
Shabaha. (The word Shabaha means the small reef in Arabic) Diving is only possible under very good weather conditions, there can be a strong current, the dive is rated as medium to advanced. Shabaha is a young coral formation about 5-6 meters below the water's surface, and being a small reef its possible to complete it in a single dive. The reef slopes gently with acroporas, hard corals, soft corals and colourful gorgonias. On the north side are several canyons penetrating the slope with table corals protruding from the reef wall. There is an abundance of marine life from Fusiliers, African Angelfish and Long Nose Emperor to Jack Fish and Leopard Puffers. Also to be seen are Sumana Grouper and Hump Head Parrot fish. In the coral crevices you can see Devilfish and Octopus. It is also possible to do a night dive on this site when the weather conditions allow.
Abu Nuhas. Also known as the Ships graveyard, this dive is only possible when the weather conditions are good. The ability level is rated as medium to advanced level. This is a fairly large reef situated two miles north of Shedwan Island. Position at the edge of the Straits of Gubal it has been the caused of several ships wrecks until the lighthouse was built. The skeletons of some of the wrecks can be seen on top of the reef. Although the name of one of the wrecks is unknown, it was carrying a cargo of copper plates (in Arabic copper is Nuhas) probably giving the reef its name. The Carnatic and another three known wrecks offer excellent diving.
Some of the best known wrecks.
Giannis; out of Greece, she was on route from Rijeka to Hodeida, carrying timber. Length 100 meters, beam 15 meters, Sank in April 983. Lying in five to twenty-three meters of water.
The cargo was washed ashore and recovered by local people. The bow protruded from the water for many years, but now she is fully submerged.
Carnatic; out of the UK, she was on route from Suez to Bombay, carrying cotton, wine and gold coins. Length 98 meters, beam 13 meters, sank September 1869. Lying in seventeen to twenty-four meters of water. The sinking causing the loss of 27 lives, she now rests on her port side the bow and stern separated.
Chrisoula K; out of Greece, she was on route from Gallipolli to Jeddah, carrying floor tiles. Length 101 meters, beam 15 meters, sank August 1981, Lying in one to twenty-five meters of water. The cargo has not been recovered to date. It is not recommended that divers enter the wreck since a recent collapse.
Kimon M; out of Panama, she was on route from Iskandarum to Bombay, carrying lentils. Length 106 meters, beam 15 meters, sank December 1978. Lying in twenty-eight meters of water. She went down in stages, the bows last and now rests on her port side. It is not recommended that divers enter the wreck since a recent collapse.
REEFS.
YELLOW FISH REEF. This reef south of Abu Nuhas has a medium to strong current at times, ability medium. With a sheltered position it makes an ideal alternative for windy days. On windy days its not advisable to dive the wrecks on the north side of Abu Nuhas. If the current is favourable it is possible to reach the two pinnacles that rise from a sandy patch only one pinnacle is visible at the surface, the other is 8 meters deep. The pinnacles have a wonderful range of colours on them, from orange and red sponges incrusted on the sides, to purple, orange and pink soft coral's alcyonaria on several points. Giant Fan corals and Gorgonia are also present. . Once you have dived through them, head back to the main reef, northwest, and follow it back to the boat. The gently sloping reef wall at this point has created interesting shelves, terraces and coral heads, emerging from the sandy bottom beside the reef. Coral types present here are hard corals like porites, table corals and other acroporas that form the main reef, with fire coral also appearing in large quantities. The reef seems to have got its name from the number of yellow fish in the area such as sweetlips, bannerfish and masked butterfly fish. Other fish found here are Glass fish, Damsels, Silversides and Fusiliers. It is also possible to see Barracudas, Turtles, White Tip Reef Sharks and Napoleon Wrasse.
BLIND REEF (Also called Shaab Ruhr Siyul). There is a quite a strong current here at times, ability rating is medium to advanced. The reef is an elongated barrier reef lying east to west less than two miles north of Shedwan Island, near the Siyul Islands. The reef walls are steep dropping to average depth of 30 meters, with further and much deeper slopes. The west side has a narrow plateau going from twenty to thirty-five meters and then falling into deeper water. Boomies and large coral heads can be found all along the dive, where the reef wall joins a sandy slope. The coral heads at the bottom are often hollow with red whip-coral growing inside and some alcyonarian soft coral covers the outside. Black coral bushes are found on the northwest plateau as well as some other points. Fire coral, table coral, pale-blue acroporas and other hard corals make up the main wall. On the north plateau can be seen red-tooth trigger fish and African smoke angelfish. In the caves and crevices you can see Glass fish. Fusiliers, Silver sides, Jacks and Tunas can be found in the blue. Its also common on this reef to see Morays, Puffer fish, Sumana grouper and Turtles.
Shaab el Erg. Rated as an easy shallow dive with good anchorage in the lagoon. Shaab el Erg, means "The reef of the pinnacles", this extremely long reef barrier is shaped like a horseshoe with a multitude of small coral heads spread over the inner lagoon. Bottlenose Dolphins can often be seen in the area. The north part of the reef offers decent diving at an average depth of fourteen meters. The section known as Dolphin House, can be achieved in a single dive and on leaving the main formation you can swim around smaller "satellite" reefs that grow at some distance away. There is a small cave in the north side at a depth of five meters. Soft coral, giant fan and yellow gorgonias are found around the cave. The reef slopes gradually to the sandy bottom, with huge table corals and hard corals such as acropora and stylophora sp. The Dolphins are the main appeal of this dive, but you can also see lots of Fusiliers, Silver sides, Turtles and Napoleon wrasse around the reef. Eagle Rays are occasionally seen here as well as Lion fish and Glass fish schooling in the caves.
Shabaha. Ability level medium to advanced there is quite a strong current at times and the dive is usually only done under very good weather conditions. This young coral formation has not yet reached the surface. The top is still five to six meters below the water's surface. Due to its size the dive reef can be completed in a single dive. The reef slopes gently on the sides with acroporas and other hard corals. What current there is breaks on a proliferation of soft corals and colourful gorgonias, with Giant fan corals expanding and opening to the incoming stream. The north side has some superb sights with several canyons penetrating the slope that is full of table corals protruding from the reef wall. The fish population mostly consists of Fusiliers, Long nose Emperor and Jack fish schooling beside the reef. Other fish seen here are Leopard Puffer fish, Sumana grouper, African Angelfish and Humped parrotfish. Hiding in the crevices and swimming amongst the rubble are Devilfish, Lobsters and Octopus. The site is also popular as a night dive if there is not too much wind.
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