El Gouna is a tourist resort located in Hurghada on the Red Sea coast. The resort dates back to 1990, when Orascom Hotels and Development Company developed it on a group of islands as one of its tourism projects. El Gouna is 22 km to the north from Hurghada International Airport, and 470 km separates it from Cairo.
Meaning of the name: The origin of the name Al-Juna is Arabic. Al-Juna is a piece of skin in the shape of a circle in which the perfumer keeps the perfume. The Messenger of Islam, Muhammad, mentioned the name in hadiths and said that the meaning of Al-Juna is “temptations like pieces of a dark night.” He also said in a hadith: ((And his hand felt cold and smelly, as if he had brought it out of an apothecary’s garden)).
Al-Juna also has many meanings, including: It is said that Al-Juna is the hill (i.e. a hill or a high place). Al-Juna is a name given to both: black and white. John is black mixed with red, and the plural is: john. The name El Gouna is also given to the white thing and the light that comes from the bright, clear thing. The sun is said to be Gouna, meaning white with a dazzling ray. It is also said that El Gouna is the tip of the bow. It is also said that the ship docked in El Gouna, meaning in the Gulf. Perhaps this meaning applies to it because it is a small bay.
Tourist importance
El Gouna is distinguished by being a site for deep diving and various water sports. The resort has two main beaches: “Zaytouna Beach” and “Mangroovy Beach.” The resort is interspersed with a large number of water channels, making each house, villa, or chalet in the resort its own beach, and most of these The water canals were built with small stone bridges to facilitate movement.
There are 6 neighborhoods in El Gouna: “Marina Town,” “Mediterranean Neighborhood,” “Golf Neighborhood,” “Nubian Neighborhood,” “Hadaba Neighborhood,” and “Italian Neighborhood.” There are also three main central areas in El Gouna, in which there are homes, shops, shopping areas, bars, restaurants, and night clubs: the Downtown area, the Tamr Henna Square area, and the Abu Tig Marina area, which are being developed to receive large yachts. There is a diverse FM radio station in the resort, “Radio El Gouna.” » There are 14 hotels in El Gouna, ranging from 4 to 5 stars, in addition to a 6-star hotel. It extends near Abu Tig Marina in the resort, and there is also another yacht marina, Abidos Marina.
• El Gouna hosted international golf competitions organized by Fred Cupples, who was previously ranked number one in the game.
There is also a fully equipped hospital in El Gouna, the EGIS School, the Technical University of Berlin, and a small airport for the resort for private and charter aircraft.
El Gouna also has a small museum containing about 90 exhibits that opened in 1990. It also contains an exhibition displaying the works of contemporary Egyptian visual artist Hussein Bikar.
Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the former Egyptian president, also inaugurated it on May 5, 2008. The Knowledge Embassy Library is an advanced digital library that is mainly linked to the Library of Alexandria and its archives, books, documents, and data.
Hotels
There are many hotels and health resorts in the city of El Gouna, ranging from three stars to five stars, and are visited by tourists from inside and outside Egypt.
Yacht club
The city of El Gouna features a yacht club or yacht marina to receive the yachts of the pioneers of the El Gouna resort and travelers across the sea. The club is similar in its services to other clubs such as the Sharm El Sheikh Yacht Club, the Egyptian North Coast Marina, the Limassol Marina in the neighboring country of Cyprus, and the Dubai Marina.