City in Egypt
About Sharm El Sheikh
Sharm El Sheikh, alternatively rendered Sharm el-Sheikh or Charm el Sheikh, is an Egyptian city located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea in Asia. Its population is approximately 77,000 as of 2017. 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, St. Catherine and Mount Sinai.
Name
The English name of Sharm El Sheikh is a borrowing of the Egyptian Arabic شرم الشيخ, šarm aš-šayḵ and, as such, does not have a fixed romanisation. There are documented uses of alternate spellings such as Sharm el Sheikh and Sharm el-Sheikh, sometimes within the same news article. Sharm El Sheikh is sometimes referred to as the "City of Peace" (مدينة السلام, madinet es-salām), referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there. Amongst Egyptians and also many visitors, the name of the city is commonly shortened to "Sharm" (Egyptian Arabic: [ʃɑɾm]), which is its common name in Egyptian Arabic.
Geography and history
Sharm El Sheikh is on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Tiran at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Its strategic importance led to its transformation from a fishing village into a major port and naval base for the Egyptian Navy. It was conquered by Israel during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and returned to Egypt in 1957. A United Nations peacekeeping force was stationed there until 1967 when it was ordered to leave by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a fact that precipitated the Six-Day War during which it was reoccupied by Israel. Sharm El Sheikh remained under Israeli control from 1967 until the Sinai Peninsula was returned back to Egypt in 1982, after the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979 that was signed in Washington, D.C. During that time, an Israeli settlement named Ofira was built in the area. …
Climate
The city experiences a subtropical arid climate, classified by the Köppen–Geiger system as hot desert (BWh). Temperatures are just short of a tropical climate. Typical temperatures range from 18 to 23 °C (64 to 73 °F) in January and 33 to 37 °C (91 to 99 °F) in August. The temperature of the Red Sea in this region ranges from 21 to 28 °C (70 to 82 °F) over the course of the year. Marsa Alam, Kosseir and Sharm El Sheikh have the warmest winter night temperatures of cities and resorts in Egypt. The highest recorded temperature was 46 °C (115 °F) on 3 June 2013, and the lowest recorded temperature was 5 °C (41 °F) on 23 February 2000.
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