Red Sea Diving from Jordan & Egypt

The Red Sea is the stuff of legend for most divers.  It is the epitome of all that is enticing and fascinating about tropical reefs, with fabulous coral walls and gardens stocks with mythically beautiful sea life and enigmatic shipwrecks.  But diving is not the whole story.  Away from the aquatic realm, the red Sea region is a rich and varied patchwork of peoples. Cultures and landscapes.  Made up of eight separate nations, each with a distinct blend of ethnic and religious groups, but the same stark landscape, the Red Sea is as fascinating above the waves as below them.

Warm water, stunning coral, colorful reef fish, crystal visibility and tropical sun the year round is what Red Sea Diving is all about, the spectacular array of marine life being the main attraction.  At the small end of the scale, blennies, basslets and anthias form a vivid pattern of tiny, colorful flashes on virtually every reef and if you look closely you will find a stunning variety of Nudibranchs.  Slightly larger damselfish, cardinals, butterflyfish and a dazzling variety of wrasse of every size and description are common.  Parrotfish and magnificently patterned angelfish mingle with triggerfish of several families including the beautiful blue trigger and bulky titan trigger.  Groupers lurk in caves and crevices, while the big schooling fish patrol the reef – red and black snapper, sturgeons and unicornfish in all shapes and sizes, as well as large pelagic visitors.

The big end of the spectrum is shared between bulky bumphead parrotfish, stately Napolean wrasse, giant grouper and sleek barracuda.  More exotic inhabitants include giant moray eels, trumpetfish, pufferfish, boxfish, frogfish, crocodilefish, eagle and manta rays and the rare majestic whale shark.

The Red Sea is also known for the possibility of encounters with many different sharks.  Severl specials are found in these crystal clear waters ranging from schooling Hammerhead sharks off the point of Ras Muhammad’s shark reef to Nurse and guitar sharks on the sandy bottoms along the coast.  As well as fish, marine mammals such as dolphins and the reclusive dugong make their homes in the Red Sea and green and hawksbill turtles are also common.

There is an endless diversity of corals and other reef life from the delicate gorgonian sea fans to the waving flower like tendrils of Xeniid soft corals and sponges and anemones of all types.

The other main highlight of diving in this region is the variety and number of well-preserved accessible shipwrecks that litter the seabed across the entrance to the Gulf of Suez.  Many major wrecks lie in easy reach of Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt), especially from a liveaboard boat.  There are 19^th century mail steamers, modern cargo ships and historic spics traders lying on the bottom, all waiting to be explored.  The most famous of the shipwrecks in the region is the Thistlegorm, a 375ft (125m) long World War 2 cargo ship sunk in 1941, which sits virtually upright in 100ft (30m) of water.  The ship was fully laden with cargo when sunk by two German bombers, and while the front section is badly damaged the majority of the wreck can be fully penetrated.  There is everything from rubber boots to motorcycles, jeeps, anti-aircraft guns and artillery to see, and despite the large number of divers on the wreck every day marine life abounds.

Out of the water, the people of both Jordan and Egypt are extremely friendly and hospitable, and the exotic culture and history should not be missed.  From Sharm el Sheikh Egypt where the boat will depart from it is a 3 hour drive to the base of Mt. Sinai, to watch sunrise from the summit of this mystical mountain after a moonlit hike is spectacular.  Just outside Aqaba, Jordan is Wadi Rum, a desert area still inhabited by Bedouins and where the famous movie “Lawrence of Arabia” was filmed.  A little further, maybe 2-3 hours, is the ancient city of Petra, made famous in the move “Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade” but a movie cannot do justice to this valley of temples and tombs carved into the soaring canyon walls, it is something that has to be seen to be believed. 

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