Forty years ago, Hurghada was a cluster of fishing huts with dirt roads and fewer than 12,000 residents. Today, it is Egypt’s premier Red Sea resort, home to over 250,000 people and welcoming millions of visitors annually. The history of Hurghada is a rapid, dramatic transformation—driven first by oil, then by tourism, and now defined by the challenge of saving the very coral reefs that made it famous.
Executive Summary
Hurghada’s modern history spans just over a century. It began in 1909 as an oil outpost established by British engineers . For decades, it remained a small fishing and petroleum village. The turning point came in the 1980s, when the Egyptian government and private investors transformed it into a tourism hub through low-cost land, tax incentives, and minimal environmental regulation . By 2014, the population had exploded from 12,000 to over 250,000 . However, this breakneck growth came at a cost: satellite data shows 5.34 square kilometers of coral reef were lost to dredging and landfilling between 1972 and 2011 . Today, Hurghada serves as both a world-class vacation destination and a cautionary tale about sustainable development.
What is Hurghada? A Quick Orientation
Imagine a city built along a single, winding coastal road. The desert presses against its back. The sea spreads turquoise before it.
Hurghada sits on Egypt’s eastern coast, approximately 450 kilometers southeast of Cairo . It stretches nearly 40 kilometers along the Red Sea. Unlike traditional cities with a central downtown, Hurghada is linear—resorts, marinas, and neighborhoods connect like beads on a string.
The city has three main districts. El-Dahhar is the old town, where fishermen once sold dried fish . El-Saqala is the tourist center, built during the 1980s boom . New Hurghada extends southward, lined with international hotels and private beaches .
To understand Hurghada today, you must start at the beginning—when there was almost nothing there at all.
Before 1900: The Empty Coast
For most of human history, no city stood here.
Ancient Egyptians sailed past this coastline toward Sinai and the Land of Punt. They left no temples, no tombs, no monuments. The desert was too dry. The shore offered no natural harbor. There was no reason to stay.
Instead, Bedouin tribes moved through the area seasonally. They came from Arabia, crossed the Red Sea, and fished the abundant waters . They built temporary shelters from camel hair and wool. They traded dried fish with caravans arriving from Upper Egypt .
One account from 1908 describes only six simple fishing huts on this entire coastline . The fishermen needed a meeting point—a landmark visible from sea. They found a large Ghardaq tree, a salt-tolerant shrub with yellow flowers. The tree became their rendezvous. They called the place Al-Ghardaqa .
That tree is now gone. A summer residence for King Farouk was later built on its site, now used by Egyptian military administration . But the name endured—modified by British tongues into “Hurghada.”
1905–1930: The Oil Discovery That Built a Town
The history of Hurghada as a permanent settlement begins with petroleum.
In 1905, Egyptian geologist Ali El-Hefny detected oil traces north of the present city center. British investors took notice. Egypt was under British influence, and oil was becoming a strategic asset.
In 1909, British engineers arrived to begin serious exploration . By 1913, oil had been found. The Anglo-Egyptian Oil Fields Company—a joint venture between Shell and BP—relocated its headquarters here in 1915 .
Workers needed housing. Small wooden bungalows appeared. A pier was built. Shops opened to serve the growing workforce.
The 1928 Baedeker travel guide to Egypt described “el-Hurghāda” as the administrative center of the Red Sea border district, with 2,123 residents, a mosque, and a school . It was still a company town—built for oil, not for tourists.
For the next five decades, Hurghada remained small. Fishermen continued their trade. Oil workers extracted crude. The outside world barely knew it existed.
1963: The First Seed of Tourism
Change came quietly in 1963.
That year, the Sheraton Hurghada Hotel opened its doors . It was not part of a grand tourism plan. It was a single hotel, built when the town was still a large fishing village.
At the time, almost no one came here for vacation. The hotel stood mostly empty. But it marked a turning point. For the first time, someone had looked at this coastline and seen not oil, but leisure.
Still, mass tourism remained two decades away. The 1967 Arab-Israeli war and subsequent instability kept visitors away. Hurghada waited.
1980–1990: The Great Transformation
The 1980s changed everything.
Egypt emerged from the Camp David Accords with a new strategic orientation. President Anwar Sadat had shifted Egypt toward economic liberalization—known as Infitah, or “open door.” Tourism was identified as a key growth sector.
The Vision of One Man
Much of Hurghada’s modern form traces to General Youssef Afifi, the Red Sea Governor in the early 1980s .
Afifi had a clear strategy. He wanted to turn Hurghada into a world-class resort. To do so, he needed private investors. And to attract investors, he needed to remove barriers.
He offered three powerful incentives:
- Tax breaks for tourism projects
- Inexpensive land—as low as $1 per square meter
- Fast-track building permits with minimal bureaucracy
Environmental regulations were not part of the equation. At the time, “sustainability” was not yet a global tourism standard. The priority was jobs, foreign currency, and economic growth.
The First Investors
Before Afifi’s push, Hurghada had only two public-sector hotels: the Sheraton and the Magawish Village .
Then came Mohamadi Howaidak, a tourism investor who launched Al-Giftun Tourist Village . It was the first private resort in the area. Others followed.
In the mid-1980s, charter flights began arriving from Germany . For the first time, international tourists could fly directly into Hurghada’s airport—which would later become Egypt’s second busiest .
The transformation was not gradual. It was explosive.
Satellite View: Measuring the Boom
The growth of Hurghada is visible from space.
NASA’s Landsat satellites captured the change in stark detail. In 1984, Hurghada appeared as a modest gray cluster against tan desert, with scattered buildings near the airport and coastline .
By 2014, the landscape had been rewritten. Hotels, residential compounds, and roads covered previously empty land. Development was especially dense in Es-Saqala and around the airport .
Researchers quantified this expansion using satellite imagery from 1972 to 2011. Their findings reveal the scale of transformation:
| Metric | Change (1972–2011) |
|---|---|
| Urban area expansion | +16.47 km² |
| Road network expansion | +8.74 km² |
| Landfilling into sea | +7.56 km² |
| Dredging of seabed | +2.67 km² |
| Coral reef loss | -5.34 km² |
*Source: Satellite change detection study, 2011 *
This is the physical record of Hurghada’s growth. Every square kilometer of new resort came from somewhere. Much of it came from the sea.
The Coral Reef Crisis: What Was Lost
Hurghada’s appeal was never its architecture. It was always what lay beneath the water.
The Red Sea coral reefs are among the most biodiverse on Earth. Hurghada sits near some of the finest reef systems in the world—underwater gardens visible from glass-bottom boats . For decades, these reefs drew divers from Europe, Russia, and beyond.
But the same reefs paid a heavy price for Hurghada’s success.
How Reefs Were Damaged
Developers needed beachfront. To create smooth, wide beaches, they dredged the seabed and filled coastal shallows . Swimming pools, marinas, and hotel foundations were built directly atop reef flats.
This was not accidental damage. It was systematic conversion of marine habitat into real estate.
Hesham El-Askary, a Chapman University scientist who studied Hurghada’s reefs, summarized the situation bluntly:
“What is happening to the coral reef around Hurghada is extremely sad. In addition to the effects of climate change, Hurghada’s coral reefs are damaged, displaced, polluted, and stepped on.”
His research found that coral cover near Hurghada had declined by as much as 50 percent over three decades .
Other threats compounded the damage. Wastewater runoff from hotels fueled harmful algae growth. Careless snorkelers and divers broke fragile corals. Sediment from construction smothered reef polyps.
The Uniqueness of Red Sea Corals
Recent science has added urgency to this story.
Studies now show that northern Red Sea corals are exceptionally resilient to rising ocean temperatures . While 90% of the world’s reefs are projected to be functionally degraded by 2050, these corals may survive—and potentially serve as seed banks for global reef regeneration.
This means Hurghada’s remaining reefs are not locally valuable. They are globally critical.
Yet development continues. As of late 2024, bulldozers were reported at Ras Hankorab, a pristine beach south of Hurghada, preparing ground for new resorts before full planning approvals were secured . Conservation advocates describe this as a direct violation of Global Sustainable Tourism Council criteria.
Population Explosion: From Village to City
The human dimension of Hurghada’s history is equally dramatic.
In the 1980s, Hurghada was home to approximately 12,000 people .
By 2006, the census recorded 86,791 residents in Hurghada proper .
In 2014, NASA estimated the population had surpassed 250,000 .
A 2018 source placed the figure at 160,901—though definitions of city boundaries vary .
Regardless of the exact number, the trend is clear. Hurghada grew more than twentyfold in three decades.
Most of these residents work in tourism or tourism-adjacent industries. Fishing, once the primary livelihood, is now a minority occupation . The economy runs on hotel beds, dive boats, and airport transfers.
The Dahar District: Where History Survives
Not all of Hurghada is new.
The Dahar district (also spelled Ed-Dahhar) is the original settlement. Here, you can still see what Hurghada looked like before the resorts arrived.
Dahar’s streets are narrower. Its buildings are older. The souks (local markets) operate much as they did decades ago—spice vendors, fabric merchants, and gold shops crowded together .
For visitors seeking authenticity, Dahar offers a glimpse of pre-tourism Hurghada. It is the memory layer beneath the modern city.
Hurghada Museum: Telling the Story
In 2020, a major new cultural institution opened: the Hurghada Museum .
The museum houses over 1,000 archaeological exhibits, spanning ancient Egyptian history through the modern era. Its galleries include mummies, statues, sarcophagi, and everyday objects from Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, and Islamic periods.
Why build an Egyptian history museum in a resort town? The answer speaks to Hurghada’s evolution. The city is no longer just a beach destination. It is maturing into a cultural hub, offering visitors both coral reefs and civilization.
The museum also serves an educational purpose. By presenting Egypt’s heritage, it reminds visitors—and locals—that this coastline has a story far older than tourism.
The Development Model: $1 Land, Billions in Return
How did Hurghada grow so fast? The answer lies in Egypt’s unconventional land policy.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Tourism Development Authority sold land to investors at nominal prices—as low as $1 per square meter .
To outsiders, this appeared to be a giveaway. Critics questioned why public land was sold so cheaply.
The rationale was more complex. Investors who bought land at $1 per meter were required to:
- Build complete infrastructure (water, power, roads)
- Construct desalination plants and sewage treatment
- Develop the land at their own expense
By the time a resort was operational, the effective cost per square meter had risen to hundreds or thousands of dollars. The government received no upfront revenue, but it also bore no infrastructure cost.
This model accelerated development rapidly. By 2011, Egypt’s tourism industry was generating $13.7 billion in national income and employing 12.6% of the workforce .
Hurghada was the testing ground for this approach. Its success—and its environmental cost—became the template for subsequent Red Sea developments.
Modern Hurghada: By the Numbers
Today’s Hurghada is a city of considerable scale:
- Hotels: Nearly 200, across all price categories
- Airport: Egypt’s second busiest, serving millions annually
- Annual visitors: Over 1 million international tourists
- Primary markets: Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, Italy
- Diving centers: Dozens, offering access to Giftun Islands, Abu Nuhas shipwrecks, and offshore reefs
The city has also spawned satellite resorts. El Gouna (22 km north) and Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Bay, Soma Bay (18–45 km south) are essentially Hurghada-born developments, following the same model .
Environmental Reckoning: Learning from the Past
The history of Hurghada is now entering a new chapter.
For decades, growth was the only metric that mattered. Today, there is growing recognition that Hurghada’s long-term viability depends on the health of its marine environment.
Signs of Change
Some five-star hotels in Hurghada have begun implementing green practices:
- Solar panel installations
- Energy-efficient lighting schedules
- Water conservation programs
- Staff training on sustainability
These measures are not yet universal, and they do not reverse decades of reef loss. But they represent a shift in mindset.
Legal and Regulatory Efforts
Egypt has issued environmental laws to protect coastal ecosystems. The challenge has always been enforcement.
Researchers who documented Hurghada’s reef loss recommended several measures:
- Coastal Building Front Line (CBFL) to limit shoreline construction
- Reef Protection Line (RPL) prohibiting development near coral formations
- Appointment of judicial officers to enforce environmental law
- Tougher penalties for violators
As of 2025, these recommendations remain partially implemented. Conservation advocates warn that the same pressures that reshaped Hurghada are now moving south toward Wadi el Gemal National Park, one of Egypt’s most pristine coastal areas .
What Hurghada Teaches Us
Hurghada’s story is not unique. It echoes the development paths of Cancun, Phuket, and the Costa del Sol.
But it offers three specific lessons:
First, rapid tourism development works. Hurghada created jobs, attracted investment, and lifted an entire region out of obscurity. The economic case for tourism-led growth is proven here.
Second, environmental costs are real and measurable. The 5.34 square kilometers of lost reef are not an opinion. They are a satellite-verified fact. Every development decision has a trade-off.
Third, it is possible to change course. The presence of green hotel practices, marine protected areas, and growing environmental awareness suggests that Hurghada can evolve. The question is whether evolution can outpace continued pressure.
Conclusion: Still Writing the History
The history of Hurghada is not finished. It is being written today—in hotel boardrooms, in government ministries, and on the coral reefs where divers still descend into clear water.
What was once a fishing village became an oil town. The oil town became a resort. The resort became a city. Now the city must decide what comes next.
Will Hurghada be remembered as a place that sacrificed its natural treasures for short-term gain? Or as a destination that learned from its past and preserved what remained?
The answer depends on choices being made right now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hurghada first became a significant settlement in 1909, when British engineers arrived for oil exploration. A permanent village developed through the 1920s .
It comes from the Arabic “Al-Ghardaqa,” named after the Ghardaq shrub (Nitraria schoberi). Bedouin fishermen used a large tree of this species as a meeting point .
It was a small fishing and oil workers’ village. In 1908, only six huts existed. By 1928, about 2,100 people lived here. Fishing and petroleum were the main industries .
The first tourism development began in the early 1980s, though the Sheraton Hotel opened as early as 1963. The real boom started with charter flights from Germany in the mid-1980s .
In the 1980s, about 12,000 people lived here. By 2014, the population exceeded 250,000—more than twenty times larger .
They are part of the northern Red Sea reef system, which is unusually resilient to warming oceans. These reefs may survive climate change and help regenerate reefs worldwide .
Yes. Satellite studies show 5.34 km² of coral reef were lost to dredging and landfilling between 1972 and 2011. Coral cover near Hurghada has declined by up to 50% in three decades .
El-Dahhar (Dahar) is the original town. It has traditional souks, and older buildings that predate the tourism boom .
Yes. The Hurghada Museum opened in 2020 with over 1,000 artifacts from Egyptian history. Dahar district also offers a glimpse of old Hurghada .
Yes, though more slowly. Development pressure has shifted southward toward Marsa Alam and Wadi el Gemal, where new resorts are planned or under construction .
Your Turn: Experience Hurghada with Open Eyes
The history of Hurghada is not just a story to read. It is a place you can visit, see, and help protect.
Choose wisely. When booking your stay, look for hotels with verified green practices—solar energy, water recycling, reef-safe sunscreen policies. Ask how they minimize impact on marine life.
Dive responsibly. Maintain perfect buoyancy. Never touch coral. Support dive operators who participate in reef conservation programs.
Visit Dahar. Spend an afternoon in the old town. Buy spices from a souk. Remember that this was once all that existed here.
Go to the museum. The Hurghada Museum tells the full story—ancient and modern. It will give context to everything else you see.
Book your trip now. Peak season runs March through November, when water visibility exceeds 30 meters and temperatures are ideal. Direct charter flights operate from most European cities. The reefs are still here—but they are not guaranteed forever.
Key Takeaways
- Hurghada was founded in 1909 as an oil town, not a resort
- Population grew from 12,000 (1980s) to over 250,000 (2014)
- Tourism boom began with charter flights and $1 land sales in the mid-1980s
- Governor Youssef Afifi and investor Mohamadi Howaidak were key pioneers
- 5.34 km² of coral reef were lost to development between 1972 and 2011
- Coral cover near Hurghada declined by up to 50% in 30 years
- Northern Red Sea corals are globally important for climate resilience
- Hurghada Museum (2020) now preserves and presents regional heritage
- Sustainable practices are emerging but not yet universal
- The development model is now moving south, threatening Wadi el Gemal