The First Aid center at the pier of Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai peninsula of Egypt

The pier at Sharm El-Sheikh is a fairly busy place. Given the tourist attractiveness of the place as a center for sun, snorkeling and scuba diving, there are a large number of tourists who visit there. Further, given that there is a certain time period in the day when most tourists go to the pier for their snorkeling and scuba diving, there can be a lot of crowd. Also, there is the potential for people to suffer small injuries or other problems such as a scratch due to the coral (trust me, in a couple of areas, they almost reach the water surface and can be pretty sharp), others can suffer breathing problems if they are doing snorkeling for the first time, and in odd cases, there can be attacks by some fish (for example, a couple of years back, there was an attack by some sharks on tourists in the water).

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Couple of ships that carry tourists to the snorkeling or scuba diving areas at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt

Sharm el-Sehikh is a small town located near the southern region of the Sinai peninsula. The place was located at a strategic place, and became a base for the Egyptian navy in the 1950's. It was then captured by the Israeli army twice over the wars that happened in the region and was finally returned to Egypt as a part of the return of the Sinai in 1982. It was developed as a tourist attraction over the decades, with the Israelis and then the Egyptians both continuing this effort. Now, Sharm el-Sheikh is a place that attracts a large number of tourists from all over who come here to enjoy the snorkeling and scuba diving in the Red Sea, especially with the coral formations that are present in the region and which now enjoy a protected status in order to ensure that the fragile environment of the corals is not threatened. At the same time, there are a large number of ships that take tourists over there, either for scuba diving or for snorkeling.

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The pier at the Sharm el-Sheikh where people are boarding a ship bound for snorkeling

The city of Sharm el-Sheikh sits at the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula, one of the Egyptian cities that are located on the shore of the Red Sea. The prime aim of tourists coming here (and a number of tourists charters come here from Europe) is to get the sun, and to enjoy the fun provided by snorkeling and scuba diving in the waters of the Red Sea. It can get pretty crowded during the tourist seasons (and keep in mind that this photo was taken during the month of February) as you can see in this photo. At the pier, there are a number of small boats tied up, all meant to take tourists for a course of snorkeling or scuba diving (the location where scuba diving is done and snorkeling is done are different, so these are typically different ships used for the same purpose). The ship that can be seen in this photo is meant for the snorkeling cruise, and a number of people are lined up for the trip. The course we went for took us to 3 sites for snorkeling, with some amazing coral reefs for us to admire.

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On a boat at the pier of the Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt

A number of people who come to Egypt come there driven by the ancient attractions in Egypt - attractions such the Pyramids, the Great Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings, or Abu Simbel. All of these are incredible structures by itself, but when I was traveling with a group, I could see that after visiting some of these structures, they got bored of seeing one historical monument after another. Well, Egypt has one great place to visit that is more of a fun place (not to say that these incredible structures are not fun to visit); it is more of a place to enjoy adventure water sports such as snorkeling and scuba diving. At the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, there is a place known as Sharm el-Sheikh. It has a number of beaches, and also has some extensive coral formations in the waters nearby, in protected areas. Visitors are allowed to do snorkeling and scuba diving in these regions, you need to make an arrangement to take a boat from the pier which will take you to these coral locations. Since the coral location is protected, visitors are prohibited from picking up any coral from the sea (even if the coral has broken off from the main formation) and the tourist guides going along with us enforced this rule.

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