Can a beach really be good or evil?

A father and his two boys playing on the beach in Sahel el-Tayeb, meaning the Good Coast, which caters to less wealthy residents and visitors, along Egypt’s northern Mediterranean coast. The surf and sand look the same, but two Egyptian beach communities, one ‘good’ and one ‘evil’, have decidedly different ideas about fun. — Fatma Fahmy/The New York Times

THERE’s no sign on the sun-baked highway down Egypt’s Mediterranean coast marking where the Good Coast ends and the Evil Coast begins.

Good or evil, the waves are the same turquoise, the sand the same flawless white. But for Egyptians who spend summer on the North Coast, there’s no mista­king which is which.