Dahab

Dahab is a small town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, about 80 km northeast of Sharm el-Sheikh. Its name is the Egyptian Arabic word for gold. The town divides into three main parts: Masbat in the north, which includes the Bedouin village of Asalah, Mashraba to the south of Masbat, and Medina in the southwest. Dahab is known as the diving capital of South Sinai and as one of the world's best known diving destinations, with sites to suit divers of every level, and it is also renowned for windsurfing. The surrounding rocks hold mineral deposits including rutile, zircon, monazite, leucoxene and gold, and the climate is a hot, very dry desert one in which rain is rare.