Sights and Entertainment

The Bedouin village is no longer really that. Nowadays the bay is lined with restaurants, camps, and gift shops that peddle the famous “Dahab pants” (LE12) and the kind of colorful backpack (big LE10, small LE7) that can now be found all over the world in places like Nepal or Thailand. Camels and horses trot up and down the beach road carrying Dutch women or pink-hued Brits. Bedouin tent-like arrangements hug the beach; it’s a sight to be seen at night when cheerfully illuminated by electric lights and floating water-bottle-borne candles (an innovative use for these pesky petroleum products which someday will bury the entire town). The whole scene is undeniably picturesque-Dahab has a charm unique to any town in the Sinai.

Dahab is home to two well-known dive sites, Canyon and Blue Hole. The latter is an 80m deep hole about 15m out from the shore that swallows several divers every year. The dive involves a traverse through a passage at a depth of 60m; some experienced divers say this is just plain nuts, and they may be right. There’s plenty of excellent diving that’s less death-defying and several dive clubs to help get you started. Canyon Dive Club (tel. 64 00 43, fax 640 3015) is a few kilometers north of the village near the dive site. It’s a beautiful spot and you have the option of staying in the nearby hotel.