You know, I appreciate your intellectual honesty. You could have just claimed it was the largest and gotten on with your day, but you took the high road.
People who come from somewhere inland don't have proper knowledge and respect for riptides. It's quite possible this pool has prevented more than a few family vacations from turning tragic.
The pool is 1,013 m (3,323 ft) long,[4] covering 8.2 ha (20 acres),[4] containing some 250 million litres (66 million US gallons)[5] of seawater, with a maximum depth of 3.5 m (11.5 ft).[6] The water is pumped from the adjacent Pacific Ocean, then filtered and treated.
The area was likely not naturally suitable for guests due to waves, currents, and marine life, so they made a sea water lagoon with beach.
I'm guessing then you wouldn't have the 'largest pool in x' to print in brochures. And I've seen pools that have barriers that can be raised up to split them up, maybe it's also a thing in this one.
Maybe largest in volume, it looks a lot deeper than the one OP posted, almost like a tank for an orca.
The one OP posted looks like it's just really long, and maybe a bit more shallow, like 5 feet might be the deepest part. I don't see any diving boards, or depth markers like you usually see for pools with varying depths, so maybe made shallow to accommodate kids.
Visited the site this morning. Very unfinished and no construction work in progress. Lagoon is full of water though. Evaporation must cost a fortune. Water is not cheap in a desert.
Many millions of dollars spent and no sign of it becoming operational. Can anyone explain the riddle of City Stars Sharm El-sheikh?
So, I don't think it should count until it is operational.
I'm pretty sure that they would have to empty it, clean it and refill it if the ocean spilled over on to it. It seems like the seawater is filtered and treated before going into the pool.
That said, there's approximately 50 meters (160ft) of beach between the sea and the pool!
Also the pool is not on ground level. It seems to be raised above the beach level