Hotels Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt - Hotel Booking

Presentation of Sharm El-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh (Arabic: شرم الشيخ‎, Sharm al-Shaykh), is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's South Sinai Governorate which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. Sharm el-Sheikh is known as The City of Peace referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there.

History of Sharm el-Sheikh

Before 1967, Sharm el-Sheikh was little more than an occasional base of operations for local fishermen; the nearest permanent settlement was in Nabk, north of Ras el-Nasrani ("The Tiran Straits"). Commercial development of the area began during the Israeli presence in the area. The Israelis built the town of Ofira overlooking Sharm el-Maya Bay, and the Nesima area, and opened the first tourist-oriented establishments in the area six kilometers north at Naama Bay. These included a marina hotel on the southern side of the bay, a nature field school on the northern side, diving clubs, a now well-known promenade, and the Naama Bay Hotel.

After the Sinai was restored to Egypt in 1982, the Egyptian government embarked on an initiative to encourage continued development of the city. Foreign investors - some of whom had discovered the potential of the locality during the Israeli occupation - contributed to a spate of building projects. Environmental zoning laws currently limit the height of buildings in Sharm el-Sheikh so as to avoid obscuring the natural beauty of the surroundings.

The city has played host to a number of important Middle Eastern peace conferences, including the September 4, 1999 agreement to restore Palestinian self-rule over the Gaza Strip. A second summit was held at Sharm on October 17, 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but it failed to end the violence. A summit was held on August 3, 2005 in this city on developments in the Arab world such as the situation in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

 See the full history of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wikipedia.