Record-breaking lagoon on track in Egypt
World’s largest navigable crystalline lagoon ‘progressing to schedule’.
Construction of the world’s largest navigable crystalline lagoon is progressing to schedule in Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt, according to Crystal Lagoons founder and chairman Fernando Fischmann.
At present, the largest crystal lagoon in the world is in Chile, however, the largest lagoon in the US $5 billion Crystal Lagoons residential project in Sharm El Sheikh will span 12 hec- tares, breaking the current world record. The development will also feature 10 other lagoons covering 100 hectares.
“The first lagoon is on track to open in the first quarter of 2011,” Fischmann told The Big Project at Cityscape Global.
The project is the result of the developer’s association with Golden Pyramids Plaza, owned by the Sharbatly family, said Fischmann.
It has also sealed alliances for a number of other tourism developments, including the Amer Group’s Soma Bay being developed in Hurghada; a $1.2 billion investment that will be operational in 2012.
Crystal Lagoons unveiled 50 of its ongoing and planned Middle East developments,
including 12 projects in Egypt at Cityscape Global last month. Among these developments is the Dead Sea Lagoon, in association with Sama Jordan, owned by the Bani Hani family. The $250 million initiative is expected to attract a wider tourist variety and is scheduled to be finished in mid-2011.
“In all of these projects, Crystal Lagoons provides something that until now was neither technical nor economically possible — the con- struction and low-cost maintenance of masses of water in a crystalline state that allows a beach life environment,” added Fischmann.
