El Gouna

El Gouna (Egyptian Arabic: الجونة el-Gūna  pronounced [elˈɡuːnæ], "the Lagoon") is a tourist resort, developed and owned by Sawiris' Family, Samih Sawiris and Orascom Hotels and Development, dating from about 1990. It is located on the Red Sea in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Hurghada. It is part of the Red Sea Riviera.

El Gouna specializes in watersports, including scuba diving, windsurfing, kitesurfing, waterskiing, parasailing and snorkelling. There are two main beaches: Zeytuna Beach located on its own island and Mangroovy Beach. A network of canals allows many houses to have their own strip of beach, even hundreds of metres inland. Most of these canals are crossed by small stone bridges.

There are three centralized areas in El Gouna, housing shops, bars and restaurants: Downtown, Tamr Henna square and the Abu Tig Marina.

There are 18 hotels (some of which were designed by the American architect Michael Graves) with 2,895 rooms rated from one star to five stars. A six-star hotel is currently under development next to the Abu Tig Marina Extension.