Sharm el-Sheikh Tauchführer [Gebundene Ausgabe]

When I was reviewing the "Hurghada Diving Guide" from these same publishers, I commented on how much of the information within that book was not only inaccurate but had also appeared elsewhere. I now have similar problems with "Sharm El Sheikh Diving Guide."

This is another book in the well-established large A4 format we have come to expect from these publishers. 28 dive-sites are covered and these include six from the Straits of Tiran (previously covered in their "Red Sea Diving Guide"), ten under the heading Local Dives (including "Ras um Sid - which is very different from the Ras Umm Sid (correct spelling) also found in the Red Sea Diving Guide), Six from the Ras Mohammed Area (yet again covered in the Red Sea Diving Guide.) and a final six sites under the heading The Strait of Gubal (wrong spelling again.) - including that perennial favourite the Thistlegorm, which now appears in at least four of the Red Sea titles from these publishers.

Sadly, one of the very few interesting things about this book is comparing how they have changed their depiction of the Thistlegorm over those four books. You would have thought they might have got it remotely accurate by now - but not so.

The book also contains that shipwreck on Shag Rock. This is the wreck they call "Sarah H" in their "Red Sea Wrecks." Having now decided that Sarah H is the wrong name for this wreck (you will recall they also made changes to their previously published shipwreck details in the Hurghada Diving Guide - except that even their changes were wrong.), they avoid any need to complete even a minimum amount of research to discover the wreck's true identity and have now given this site the inspirational name of "The Shag Rock Wreck." True, when this shipwreck was first discovered many years ago, her real identity was unknown and the finders promptly named her after their diving guide Sarah Hillel. The ship's real name is, of course, the "Kingston" - something that has been known to Divers with a knowledge of the area for something like 10 years before this book was published...

With the Dunraven also appearing in at least two other titles, yet another repeat of the dive site "Alternatives" and even more out-of-date information on "Shark Observatory" where, incidentally, Sharks have not been regularly sighted for many years, one can only ponder the publisher's motives for producing this book in the first instance.

With the overall standard of artwork having seriously declined since this range of books first appeared and some of the fish looking as though they might have been drawn by schoolchildren, one gets the impression that these publishers are no longer aiming their books at the serious Scuba Diver.

The book's one redeeming feature, however, remains a very high standard of photography - for which the book retains it's one star rating. What a pity such excellent photography has been wasted on such an abysmal product.

This review relates to the English language version of the same book.

NM

Für Tauchfans der Sinai-Halbinsel ist dieses Buch ein guter Tip. Gute Beschreibung der einzelnen Tauchplätze, man bekommt richtig
"Lust" sofort Richtung Tauchurlaub zu starten.