Dahab

Dahab (دهب) is a small village situated on the south-eastern coast of the Sinai peninsula. Formerly a Bedouin fishing village, the construction of international chain-hotels and other ancillary facilities has now made this a popular destination with tourists. The nearest international airport is located Sharm el-Sheikh. Local supplies of fresh water are very limited; most hotels have desalination plants.

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Tourist highlights include:

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• The SCUBA Diving and Snorkelling are very good, with many reefs immediately adjacent to water front hotels. The nearby Blue Hole and Canyon are internationally famous dive spots.
• The seafood restaurants along the waterfront of the down-town tourist area are good, with red snapper, calamari and lobster being highlights. The Bedouin-style seafood, based on baking in earthen-ware is also great.
• There are camel, horse, jeep and quad-bike safaris. These are either parallel to the shoreline, up one of the several valleys or around the township, the former two are recommended.
• A two hour ride is sufficient to reach Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai; ascents to view sunrise and sunset are popular.

Some less desirable things that tourists may wish to avoid include:

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• Dust storms caused by any moderately powerful easterly winds due to the complete lack of vegetation in the inland desert.
• Huge amounts of litter, especially around the more distant tourist locations.
• Shops selling coral jewelry; the CITES convention prohibits tourists from taking such jewelery home.

The word Dahab in Arabic means gold (Dhahab) and is possibly a reference to the geographic locality; gold washed down from the desert mountains may have accumulated on the alluvial flood plain where the town was built.

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Dahab: External links ►



 

Sinai: REDIRECT Sinai Peninsula...

Bedouin: Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to ...

Sharm el-Sheikh: Sharm el-Sheikh (شرم الشيخ, also transliterated as Sharm ash Shaykh), often known simply as "Sharm," is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in Janub Sina', Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai. The...