The site is named for the amphoras that lie at 22m, cargo from a 17th-century Turkish ship that sank here. The original cargo included mercury, which spilled onto the reef bed and once created mirrors on the sea floor. The mercury is long gone. The pottery is what remains.

The dive runs through a series of historical and natural waypoints. Wall to 12m. Slope to a drop-off at 20–22m. Pinnacles along the way. A modern anchor on a long chain at 25m. Two large coral towers with the ship's original anchor stick and amphora remains behind them.

The pinnacles between the wall and the drop-off hold the standard local-site mix. Glassfish in schools. Feather stars on exposed surfaces. Starfish in the cracks. None of this fauna belongs only to Amphoras, but the structure is dense enough to reward a slow dive even if every species you see exists at the neighbouring sites as well.

The historical artefacts are the dive's distinctive feature, not the marine life. Treat the amphoras and anchor stick as the priority and the species mix as supporting context.

Anemone City is a reef plateau that emerges from the wall and steps down from 5m to 25m before falling into the deep blue. It is rarely dived as a stand-alone site. The standard plan is to use it as the entry section of a Shark Reef dive — work the plateau, then head off the edge into the blue and pick up Shark Reef a few minutes later.

The name is literal. Hundreds of sea anemones cover the plateau, each one hosting clownfish and damselfish. The visual is the dive's reason for being included rather than skipped.

Around the anemone field, table corals line the plateau edges and broccoli coral fills most of the surface area. The whole plateau is photogenic and shallow enough to spend the dive's first half on.

The anemones are the headline. Each one is its own micro-community: clownfish defending their host aggressively, damselfish hovering nearby, smaller fauna tucked between the tentacles. Slow approach. Many divers race past Anemone City to reach Shark Reef and miss the entire reason this section exists. Twenty minutes here repays the patience.

Beyond the anemones, the table corals and broccoli coral support the species mix you would expect on a healthy Red Sea plateau — small reef fish, schooling juveniles, the occasional larger predator passing through.

Eel Garden sits between Jackfish Alley and Shark Observatory on the northern stretch of the Ras Mohammed coastline. The site has two distinct halves: a sandy bank where the eponymous garden eels live, and a reef wall further along that transitions into the Shark Observatory site.

The garden eels are the reason most divers come. They emerge from the sand in a loose colony, swaying in the current as they feed on plankton. Approach is the whole challenge — they retreat into their burrows at the slightest disturbance, and a clumsy descent ends the encounter before it starts.

Red Sea Garden Eels populate the sandy bank in numbers worth slowing down for. They are timid by default. The technique is to settle on the bottom downcurrent and wait. Patience pays off here in a way that few sites reward, and divers who hover impatiently usually leave with a worse experience than those who simply lie still on the sand for ten minutes before reaching for the camera.

The reef wall in the second half is dressed mainly in hard corals. The standout species is the black coral, growing as tree-like structures off the wall itself. Black coral is rare enough that the wall here is the reason photographers stick with the dive past the eel section.

Far Garden is the most distant of the four Garden sites that sit in the bay just north of Naama Bay. The Gardens run in sequence: Near closest to Naama, Far at the outer end, Middle and Fiddle between them. Far Garden's distance from the bay entrance buys it slightly cleaner water and the corner plateau where the dive's pelagic encounters happen.

The dive opens with two coral pinnacles that reach nearly to the surface, two structures so prominent that the boat skipper does not need a GPS or a marker to locate the entry point even on the foggiest morning of the season. Slow descent. Look. Blennies sit in their holes and reveal themselves only to divers who actually pause and search the structure rather than swimming past. The wall past the pinnacles is not entirely vertical and has its own pinnacles scattered between the reef plate and the drop-off.

The floor between pinnacles has an unusual feature for this stretch of coast: upside-down jellyfish that look like rice pudding with almonds sprinkled on top. They are easy to dismiss as detritus until you look closely. The two opening pinnacles host blennies and the standard small reef fauna.

Toward the corner plateau at the dive's far end, the visual scale changes. Summer brings whale sharks, mantas, and the occasional hammerhead through the area. Octopus on the reef change colour and texture in real time when divers approach. Napoleon wrasse are residents and visible on most dives.

Fiddle Garden sits between Middle Garden and Far Garden in the Gardens bay just north of Naama Bay. The site has a clear three-act structure: an opening wall at 6–8m, a sandy slope to the drop-off at 18m, and a turn point at three pinnacles in a row.

The dive's defining feature is the glassfish pinnacle between 10 and 16m, the kind of structure that anchors a site in dive-guide memory because of one specific behavioural moment that you can replicate every dive if you commit to it. It once appeared on a British children's wildlife programme that ran a "get your teeth cleaned underwater" challenge — take out your regulator and let the cleaner wrasse clean them. The pinnacle is reliably populated and the cleaner wrasse routine is unchanged.

The glassfish pinnacle holds the densest single concentration on the dive. Cleaner wrasse work the cleaning station actively. The three pinnacles at the turn each have their own glassfish populations, and the last one in particular is swarmed.

Look inside the glassfish schools. Baby barracuda hide there, lionfish hang nearby waiting for the schools to scatter, and the predator-prey dynamic plays out in slow motion across the dive's middle section. On the return, watch for stonefish in the rubble between pinnacles.

Gordon Reef is the southernmost of the four Tiran reefs and the first you reach by boat. The Louilla, a Panamanian cargo ship that grounded here in 1981, sits partially above the surface as a landmark — weather has reduced the underwater structure to very little, so treat it as a navigation marker, not a wreck dive.

The main dive runs on the south side of the reef, where a plateau extends westward at 10–25m. Conditions decide which direction you start. North or south, the site delivers different species and terrain on each route.

The metal barrels on the north route shelter octopus, stonefish, and white peppered morays. Check each one carefully. The Red Sea Flasher Wrasse shows up along this stretch — it is uncommon and easy to miss if you are moving fast. A sandy patch further along holds garden eels.

The southern gully, locally called the Amphitheatre or Shark Pool, pulls in barracuda, tuna, and trevally on most dives. A school of bannerfish holds position on the right bank of the gully. Large fan corals sit in the centre at 22–25m. Sharks are sighted in this area regularly.

Jackfish Alley sits between Ras Za'atar and Shark Observatory in the northern part of Ras Mohammed National Park. The site is essentially a sequence of features rather than a single profile: two swim-throughs, a sandy bay, a pinnacle, and a coral channel that gives the site its name.

The dog-leg swim-through at 5m is where most divers form their first impression. Sunlight streams through cracks in the cave roof and casts beams across the walls. The visual is the reason photographers schedule this site for the middle of the day.

The second swim-through at 15m can be done either direction — descend through it or ascend through it depending on which way the dive is being run.

The pinnacle at 12–14m is the species-density spot. Glassfish school across it. Scorpionfish hold position on the rocks. Lionfish hover above the structure in the slow current that washes the pinnacle through most of the day. It rewards a careful pass with macro lens and torch.

The sandy bay at 9m is where blue-spotted rays cruise. They are easy to spook, so approach low and slow if you want a closer look.

The Alley channel itself runs through coral gardens of mixed hard and soft corals, with fusiliers in the mid-water and jackfish working the channel — they are why the site is named what it is. White-tip reef sharks patrol the reef edges further out, and tuna pass through in the blue beyond the channel.

Jackson Reef is the northernmost of the four Tiran reefs and the most exposed of the group. The strait it sits in is the meeting point of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Gulf of Suez, and the main body of the Red Sea — three water bodies that bring three different current patterns to one reef.

Cousteau put Jackson's south plateau on his top-ten list. That alone is reason enough; the soft-coral coverage and the schooling fish that hover above it produce the so-called "raining fish" effect, which is what most divers come for.

The wall on the eastern face descends to 45m. Partway down sit the remains of the Lara, a Cypriot merchant ship that ran out of fuel in 1981, became a refuge for its crew for two years, and finally sank in 1996. It is a wreck dive layered onto a wall dive.

Difficulty here is a step above the other Tiran reefs. The exposure to converging currents requires more management than Gordon or Thomas demand.

The south plateau is the headline. Soft corals carpet the structure, and dense schools of anthias hover above them in numbers that change the visual character of the dive. Wrasses and fusiliers add to the mix. Turtles are a regular sighting on the plateau, especially at the shallower edges where they feed.

The wall to 45m holds the Lara wreck, which has been on the reef long enough to develop its own coral and fish community. Treat it as a structural element of the wall rather than a separate dive target.

The Kormoran (also called the Zingara) ran aground on the north side of Laguna Reef in the Straits of Tiran in 1984. It came to rest in 10–12 metres of water, where it has been broken apart by decades of weather and current.

What remains is more reef than wreck. The structure is largely flattened. Hard and soft corals have grown across what is left, and the surrounding coral garden is the actual reason to do this dive — not the metalwork.

Conditions matter. The site is exposed, and anything beyond very calm sea state makes the dive unsafe to attempt at all, which is why most dive plans treat Kormoran as a weather-window opportunity rather than a scheduled stop.

Hard and soft corals grow densely across the wreck remnants and the immediate reef. The fish life is what you would expect from a healthy shallow reef in this region — varied across the broken structure, with the metal providing extra surface area for invertebrate growth.

Marsa Bareika is a natural bay inside Ras Mohammed National Park. The name translates loosely as "Blessed Dock" or "Calm Big Pond". Calm describes it well. The bay's sandy beaches are sea turtle nesting grounds, and several stretches of the shore are protected from disturbance to support the nesting.

The dive has three distinct sections: a shallow sandy plateau, a canyon that begins at 6m and drops to 30m, and the open blue beyond the canyon mouth — three quite different environments arranged in sequence on a single profile. The plateau is a macro photographer's site. The canyon is the structural feature most divers come for, and the open blue beyond the canyon mouth is where the seasonal pelagic visitors appear when conditions favour them.

Summer adds the chance of pelagic visitors — eagle rays and, on rare days, whale sharks pass through.

The plateau is the macro layer. Nudibranchs, shrimp, and the elusive sea moth all live in the sand and the small structure scattered across it. Approach slowly. Stir nothing. These species are easy to disturb and slow to come back.

The canyon itself swarms with glassfish, especially in the upper sections. Lionfish hold position on the walls and the overhangs. Both species are reliable enough that a dive without them would be unusual.

In summer, watch the blue beyond the canyon mouth. Eagle rays pass through, and on rare days a whale shark shows up. Neither encounter is guaranteed, but the seasonal pattern makes summer the worth-trying window.

Middle Garden sits between Near and Fiddle in the Gardens bay. The site's structural signature is the sand-road valley that runs between two mountains of hard coral toward the southwest, an unusual topography for the local stretch and one that gives the dive a navigation flow most other Sharm sites cannot offer because of how directly the corridor between the two coral mountains channels the swim. Most divers comment on the topography first.

The dive opens on a large white sandy patch. Rays settle here regularly. The blue-spotted shield slug, locally called the hammerhead nudibranch, sweeps across the sand looking for food in slow methodical loops that reward divers who settle nearby and breathe quietly rather than chasing the slug across the substrate as it grazes between sandy patches.

The opening sandy patch is the macro section. Rays on the sand. The blue-spotted shield slug working the substrate. Slow approach. Sand stir kills both sightings.

On top of the hard coral mountains that flank the sand road, groups of goatfish hold position. Trumpet fish hover above the structure. Schools of big-eyed emperors pass over the mountain tops in formation.

The northeast corner of the dive ends at a glassfish pinnacle. The rare ornate ghost pipefish has been recorded here. The species is small, well camouflaged, and easy to miss; if it is the priority of the dive, slow down considerably at this pinnacle.

Near Garden is the closest of the four Garden sites to Naama Bay. The reef wall descends to 8–10m and slopes to a drop-off at 18–20m. Pinnacles are scattered along the route. Topography is the site's structural draw.

Two features anchor the dive, both at depth and both close enough to the wall that you encounter them in sequence rather than having to decide which to prioritise during the dive itself. A magnificent red anemone sits at depth on the route in. Just ahead of it is a glassfish pinnacle dense enough that a diver with a camera could spend the entire dive on it without running out of subjects.

The glassfish pinnacle is the species concentrator. Nudibranch crawl across the structure. Shrimps occupy the cracks. Blennies look out from holes. Christmas tree worms decorate the surface. Banded pipefish hover near the base. Each species is a separate macro subject, and the pinnacle could swallow a 60-minute dive entirely.

The red anemone just before the pinnacle is the establishing visual. The flat bottom past the corner holds large fan corals at 22m. The corner itself, where current is strongest, has the healthiest and most colourful soft corals on the dive.

Manta rays are a summer-month possibility. Watch the open water beyond the corner, especially during plankton-rich afternoons when the productive feeding conditions that bring mantas inshore on the local stretch tend to peak in this part of the bay.

Paradise sits between Ras Um Sid and Amphoras on the southern stretch of the local sites. The recognisable surface marker is the Cleopatra's Needle statue at the Waterfalls Hotel — find the statue, find the dive.

Entry is at the floating jetty in front of the hotel. The reef descends to roughly 12m, then slopes off fairly quickly to the drop-off at 22m.

The 16m pinnacle a few metres from the jetty is the dive's species concentrator and the first place to commit serious bottom time, because most of what makes Paradise distinct as a site happens on this single piece of structure rather than across the broader reef profile. Frogfish have been recorded here historically — sightings are not guaranteed but the pinnacle is the place to look. A large fan coral with glassfish swarming around it sits on the same structure, and a yellow-mouthed moray lives close by.

The 18–22m section between pinnacles holds the standard local mix. Scorpionfish and nudibranchs colonise the reef wall and reveal themselves on the shallower return leg. Summer afternoons add the chance of mantas passing through the open water beyond the wall.

Ras Bob was originally called Labyrinth, after the shallow swim-through caves that define the site's most distinctive structural feature. The current name comes from Bob Johnson — a videographer and former Sharm dive guide who filmed an underwater commercial here for the UK bank Cheltenham & Gloucester. The columns visible in that advert were placed for the shoot and removed afterwards. They are not there today.

The dive runs best in shallow water. Stay shallow. The deeper draw is an eel garden at around 22m, but most of the productive species activity sits above that depth and the dive plan benefits from spending the bulk of bottom time in the upper reef sections rather than chasing the eel garden.

The shallow zone is the dive's productive section. Octopus are seen here regularly, working their way through the structure and changing colour as they move. Sergeant majors hang in groups in the shallows, defending small patches of substrate aggressively.

The eel garden at 22m is the deeper subject. The eels emerge from the sand in a colony, sway in the current to feed, and retreat at the slightest disturbance. Approach is the same as at any garden eel site: settle on the bottom downcurrent and wait.

Ras Ghamila is the most northerly of the local dive sites. The name is Arabic: "ras" means head and "ghamila" means beautiful. Beautiful Head.

The reef wall here is shallow. It descends to only 12m before flattening into a long slow slope that runs out toward a drop-off at least 100m from the wall. The structure is mostly a flat hard-coral bottom punctuated by giant gorgonian fan corals that rise from the seabed.

The fans are the visual landmark and the species attractor. Turtles use them as cleaning stations. Schools of glassfish hover among the branches in numbers that change the visual character of the fan when you approach. Each fan is its own subject. Slow down at each one rather than treating them as waypoints to swim past.

Giant gorgonian fans hold the most reliable encounters: turtles around the fans, glassfish schooling in their branches, the occasional larger predator passing through to investigate the gathering. The hard-coral floor between fans supports the standard reef fauna in less concentrated form.

In the shallow sandy patches at the inner end of the slope, feather-tailed rays settle on the sand. They are easy to miss unless you slow down through the shallows on the dive's exit. Watch for outlines in the sand rather than full ray shapes.

Ras Ghozlani sits inside Ras Mohammed National Park and is one of the quieter sites in the group. The depth range of 0–30m makes it accessible to most divers, but the site reads better with intermediate-to-advanced experience because of its drift profile.

The terrain is gentle. Drop-offs slope rather than fall. Coral coverage is dense and varied, with table corals as the structural elements that shelter most of the resident species. Soft corals in pink, green, and violet add the colour layer.

Less crowded than the headline park sites. If you want a productive Ras Mohammed dive without the full traffic of Shark and Yolanda, this is the one.

Table corals provide the structural shelter. Most resident species cluster around them. Schools of batfish are the reliable visual: they move between the corals as a group rather than individually, which makes them easier to photograph than the more skittish reef fish that scatter at the first sign of an approach. Groupers hold position on the larger platforms. Pink. Green. Violet. The soft-coral palette across the site is what most divers remember when they surface.

Ras Katy is the most southerly of the local dive sites and sits at the practical end of the local-stretch boat itinerary, which makes it the natural last stop on a southbound day or the first stop on a northbound one. The name comes from a lady who used to sunbathe on the beach here — the boat skippers waved to her often enough that the site quietly took her name. The story is the kind of small detail that makes the local stretch worth diving.

The dive starts on the mooring and becomes a semi-drift. Three different routes are possible from the same entry point. The site rewards a deliberate plan over a generic profile.

The headline encounter is a resident white-tip reef shark. The shark lives in about 28m and circles off the reef. Sharks hear well; this one knows you are coming before you see it. If you stay in the area without chasing, the shark often doubles back to investigate. The trick is not to pursue.

The southern corner at 26m holds large groups of Red Sea bannerfish and red-tooth triggerfish over the reef. They group together in numbers and stay put, which makes them photographable.

The shallow option around the surface-rising pinnacles holds the standard local-site mix in dense numbers because of the structure complexity.

The southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula was designated as Ras Mohammed National Park in 1983. The protected area covers roughly 480 kmآ², and has been managed for marine conservation continuously since then.

The park can be dived by boat or from shore. Both modes are productive and the choice depends on the day's plan rather than the dive quality. A National Park fee is charged per person on boat trips out of Sharm and on land-based trips into the park (Thistlegorm trips are excluded). The fee funds the National Park Authority and conservation work across Egypt's protected areas.

Shark and Yolanda Reefs are the headline sites and regularly appear on top-ten lists worldwide. Ras Ghozlani, Ras Za'atar, Jackfish Alley, Eel Garden, Shark Observatory, and Anemone City are the other named dives. Across the park, hard and soft corals are dense, fish schools are large, and the species mix is broad enough that no two days look the same.

Minimum requirement: 20 logged dives and Advanced Open Water (or equivalent). Vertical walls drop to 750m. Nitrox is recommended to extend no-decompression time at depth.

The park supports the species mix that built its reputation. Hard and soft coral coverage runs heavy across the walls. Schooling fish fill the visual frame in numbers that surprise even experienced divers on their first park dive. Pelagic visitors change with the season — reef sharks year-round on the deeper edges, jackfish and tuna in pulses through the year, large groupers as residents, and turtles as regulars on the shallower plateaus where they feed and rest.

Ras Nasrani sits immediately south of Ras Ghamila. The name is Arabic for "Christian Cape." The standard entry is from the floating pontoon or jetty.

The dive has three distinct sections that follow each other naturally as the current carries you along the reef. It opens with a descending hard-coral wall worked at 15–18m, with fusiliers schooling in the blue water just off the reef. About midway, a sandy bay marks the corner. Currents pick up there.

The corner is where the reef changes character. Stronger current brings nutrients, soft corals become more abundant, and the visual layer shifts from hard structure to soft colour. Past the corner, as the current dissipates, the reef changes again into mountainous porites coral mounds where goatfish school.

Each section has its own dominant species. The hard-coral wall section is the fusilier zone. They swarm in the blue and frame the wall throughout that part of the dive in numbers that take a few seconds to register when you first descend. The corner brings the soft-coral colour layer; look up rather than down to see the visual best.

The porites mounds at the dive's far end are where the goatfish school. Hidden between the mounds and along their bases sit scorpionfish and stonefish in numbers that the casual observer always undercounts. Both species blend into the substrate well. Slow down. Stir nothing. Approach low.

The name is Arabic — "Umm Sid" means "Mother of Sid", from the local tradition of naming a parent after their firstborn child. Sid was a local fisherman. A statue commemorating Umm Sid sits on the road up from Old Market to Hadaba.

The site offers two dives in one. The vertical wall drops to 30m at the entry. From there the dive branches: turn right for a shallower profile up the slope into hard corals and porites, or turn left to descend into the fan coral forest at depth.

If conditions cooperate, the dive opens onto a plateau of soft corals and pinnacles past the wall section, a third option layered on top of the right-versus-left binary that turns the site into one of the most variable local dives because no two visits look the same. Eagle rays in the blue. Summer brings mantas and whale sharks through.

The right-turn shallower route concentrates hard corals and porite coral structures. The fauna sitting on these structures follows the standard local-site mix.

The left-turn deeper route opens into the fan coral forest at depth. Each fan is a small ecosystem. Slow approach.

The plateau past the wall holds soft corals and the dive's most varied species mix, with eagle rays passing through the blue beyond. Summer plankton conditions bring mantas and the occasional whale shark to the open water above the plateau.

Ras Za'atar sits at the southern entrance of Marsa Bareika Bay, directly across from Ras Ghozlani. The name is Arabic: "ras" means head, "za'atar" means thyme. Together: "Head of Thyme."

The dive has three distinct sections. It opens with a sloping wall best worked at 15–18m, with cracks and small overhangs that create texture and shelter. About thirty minutes in, the route arrives at a vertical chimney where sunbeams filter down and reflect off the cliff walls. The light is the reason photographers come back.

Past the chimney, at the corner of the headland, the wall opens into a plateau where the current picks up. The current carries nutrients onto the plateau, which is why most of the larger species are encountered there.

Suitable for intermediate-to-advanced divers, especially those interested in underwater photography.

The wall section holds the smaller resident species in its cracks and overhangs. Reef fish. Small schooling groups. The occasional scorpionfish tucked into shadow on a ledge that you would otherwise drift past without a second glance. The chimney is more about light than fauna, but the walls inside it carry their own coral coverage.

The plateau is the productive zone. Stronger current means nutrient flow, and the larger species that follow that flow show up here. Watch the blue beyond the plateau edge as well; pelagics pass through.

Shark Observatory takes its name from the towering fossilised coral cliff at the southernmost tip of the Sinai and the historic viewing balconies that sit on top of it. From those balconies, observers once watched sharks in the deep water below the cliff. Sharks are seen here now only occasionally, but the name has stuck and so has the site's reputation.

The wall drops to 65m. The recreational sweet spot sits much shallower at 15–18m. Stay there.

The wall is two-faced and the difference matters. The south-facing sections catch nutrient-rich currents and support soft corals in saturated red, purple, yellow, plus green. The north-facing sections sit in shadow most of the day and hold hard corals along with overhangs and starfish-occupied ledges.

Soft coral coverage on the south face is dense and colourful. The north face is different terrain. Hard corals dominate it. Overhangs cut into the wall. Starfish settle on ledges. The transition between the two faces happens around the cliff's corner, where a large fan coral sits on a prominent ledge. Look for longnose hawkfish among its branches if the current is gentle enough to hover. The blue beyond the wall is where turtles glide and jacks school in numbers worth pausing for.

Shark and Yolanda sits at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula where the Gulf of Aqaba, the Gulf of Suez, and the Red Sea converge. It is on most "top ten dive sites in the world" lists, and the reasons are not subtle: a vertical wall to 700–900m, a connected sister reef, a wreck cargo field, and seasonal pelagic traffic that includes most of the species divers come to the Red Sea for.

The site is two reefs joined by a saddle. Shark Reef itself is the vertical wall on the seaward side. Yolanda Reef is the plateau next to it, named for the wreck that lies at its base. The saddle reef between them is its own dive section, with coral pinnacles and the wrasse and moray traffic that they attract.

The Yolanda wreck went down in a 1980 storm. The hull is too deep to dive recreationally, but its cargo (hotel furniture destined for Aqaba) settled at 12–25m and became an artificial reef. The captain's BMW 320 is part of the debris field and is the photo most divers leave with.

The wall section drops past recreational depth. Hard and soft corals coat it in purples and greens, and dense schools of anthias hover above the structure in numbers that change the light around you. Look up for the visual.

Summer is the season for the larger schools: jacks, tuna, batfish, unicorn surgeonfish. Snappers form a tornado-like wall just off the reef on busy days. The blue beyond the wall is where the larger pelagic encounters happen — sharks, rays, and the occasional bigger surprise.

The saddle and Yolanda Plateau hold a different mix. Scorpionfish in the corals. Napoleon wrasses, moray eels, and jacks working the pinnacles together. Turtles feeding on the soft corals at depth.

The Yolanda wreckage is colonised by blue-spotted rays and crocodile fish. The artificial reef formed by the cargo is shallow enough to be the dive's last section before ascent.

Sharks Bay sits between Ras Bob and Far Garden on the local stretch of the Sharm coastline. The defining logistical fact about the site is that it can only be dived from the shore. There is no boat option.

That single constraint shapes everything else. Shore entry. Shore exit. Whatever bottom time the swim out and back leaves you. Whatever depth profile makes sense from the entry point.

The site is on the local-sites stretch and follows the regional Red Sea fauna pattern that the neighbouring sites support. No species are documented as specific to Sharks Bay in the available source material — treat the site as a productive local reef rather than a target for any single species.

The name is Arabic for "coincidence." Two of the original Sharm dive guides surfaced here thinking they were at a different site, realised the resemblance, and the name stuck. Sodfa is the close cousin to Tower — similar profile, similar terrain, less commonly visited.

The reef descends to roughly 12m and then slopes outward on a sandy bottom to a drop-off ridge at 18 to 25 metres of depth, a profile that is gentle enough for newer divers but extends far enough to give experienced divers something to work with. Table corals and fan corals line the ridge edge. The dive is straightforward.

Table corals and fan corals dominate the ridge edge. They are the structural shelter for the resident reef fauna, which follows the standard local-site mix — small reef fish, schooling juveniles, occasional larger predators on a slow pass.

The site does not have a single named species attractor the way the Gardens do. Treat it as a reliable local reef rather than a target dive.

The SS Dunraven was built in Newcastle in 1873 and went down on the night of 25 April 1876, having struck the reef of Sha'ab Mahmoud southeast of Ras Mohammed while travelling between India and the UK. The crew survived. The ship did not.

She lies upturned. The bow sits at 15m, the stern rests on the seabed at 29m, and the standard dive runs from bow to stern along the spine of the upturned hull. Looking to the right as you travel, the shape of the rigging is still visible. The crow's nest sits on the seabed beside the wreck.

The wreck is penetrable. A hole at 28m lets divers enter the hull, and the broken sides allow enough ambient light through that the interior is workable without heavy reliance on torches.

Inside the hull, the boilers mark the midpoint of the swim-through. A dense school of glassfish lives on the shallow side of the boilers and is one of the dive's signature visuals. A large moray eel has been resident at the boilers for many years and is reliably found there.

Outside the wreck, the exit route runs along the reef at 9m, where porites coral colonies show pastel pinks, greens, yellows, and blues. The coral garden is the colour layer of the dive.

The Million Hope is the largest wreck in the Nabq area, north of Sharm El Sheikh. It hit the reef in 1996 and settled at a maximum depth of 22 metres, where it has remained ever since.

Boat dive only. Rough surface conditions mean the wreck stays uncrewed that day. When the sea is right, the size of the structure makes it the most substantial wreck in the local area, with enough scope to fill multiple dives if you return more than once.

The standout feature is the crane. Decades of growth have covered it, and a dense school of glassfish lives among the framework — moving as one mass when divers approach, then settling back into shape behind you.

The crane is the focus point: glassfish school there in numbers that change the visual character of the structure. Beyond the crane, the wreck has acquired the species mix you would expect from a 30-year-old wreck in this region — coral colonisation across the metal, fish populations using the structure for shelter.

The SS Thistlegorm is the wreck dive that gets people on planes to Sharm. Built in Sunderland in 1940 as a British armed freighter, she was bombed by two Heinkel He 111s on the night of 6 October 1941 and went down with her cargo bound for Alexandria. Cousteau located the wreck in the 1950s with the help of local fishermen, and she has been the headline dive of this stretch of the Red Sea ever since.

What makes the site is the cargo. The holds are an underwater museum. Bedford trucks, Universal Carrier armoured vehicles, Norton 16H motorcycles, BSA motorcycles, aircraft wings for Westland Lysanders, ammunition cases, Lee-Enfield Mk III rifles, Wellington boots — most still recognisable, all still in place where the bombs left them.

Outside, the deck and surrounds hold heavier kit: four Bren gun carriers, LMS Stanier Class 8F steam locomotives with coal and water tenders, a 3-inch light anti-aircraft gun, and a 4-inch cannon from WWI reportedly test-fired only once.

The wreck supports a productive resident population on top of the historical interest. Nudibranchs are the macro layer across the deck and hull surfaces. Jacks school in the current that runs across the open sections of the wreck. Crocodilefish rest on the decks and are easy to miss because they sit perfectly still and match the substrate.

Stingray Station sits between Alternatives and Beacon Rock on the offshore reef line. The site profile is close enough to Alternatives that the two are commonly run as a pair on the same boat trip — coral blocks rising from sand, similar depth range, similar dive style.

The named draw here is stingrays. They settle on the sandy floor between the coral blocks, where they are easy to miss and easy to spook.

Stingrays are the species this site exists for. They rest on the sand, partly buried, and a careless approach scatters them before you see them at all. Beyond the rays, the coral block fauna is the standard Red Sea reef mix that Alternatives also supports — small reef fish, schooling juveniles, the occasional larger predator on a slow pass.

The Straits of Tiran sit at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, where Tiran Island and the Sinai Peninsula narrow into a channel that concentrates current and forces it past four reef systems running north to south: Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas, and Gordon.

All four carry hard and soft corals in good health, with high biodiversity and dense fish life. Drift dives only. Vertical walls drop into canyon systems at depth, and the currents here are frequent and strong — not the kind you fight, the kind you plan around.

Reef sharks patrol the deeper edges. Hammerheads pass through seasonally. Two wrecks sit grounded on the outer flanks of Jackson and Gordon, both visible above the surface as landmarks before you enter the water. Million Hope lies farther north on the western side of the gulf. South Laguna and North Laguna are additional sites within the straits.

Minimum requirement: 20 logged dives and Advanced Open Water (or equivalent). Nitrox is recommended to extend your no-decompression limits where the wall takes you deep.

Hard and soft corals cover all four reef systems with high biodiversity. Fish life is dense across walls and plateaus throughout. At depth the character shifts: reef sharks work the deeper edges on a regular basis, and hammerheads are sighted seasonally when conditions bring them through the strait.

Temple takes its name from the pinnacles that stand in the bay and reminded the early divers of an underwater temple, the kind of association that locals applied loosely enough that any structural feature looking even faintly architectural ended up with a name that stuck. The bay itself is flat, ranging from 10 to 18m, and the pinnacles are the dive's structural reason for existing.

The site is a mooring dive. Three pinnacles in sequence. Two swim-throughs. A relocated amphora that travelled here from the wreck at the Amphoras dive site.

The deeper pinnacle (top 12m, bottom 18m) holds the dive's species concentration. Soft corals on the upper section. Pipefish in the structure. Glassfish in dense schools across the top. The current usually hits the left side of this pinnacle, which keeps the soft corals at their best.

The first pinnacle has a feisty clownfish that defends its small territory aggressively against approaching divers. The territorial display is photographable if you settle and let it play out.

The local dive sites of Sharm El Sheikh sit along the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. They are the gentler counterpart to the headline sites at Tiran and Ras Mohammed — less depth, less current, less certification required, and a more forgiving profile that suits training and early-career divers.

From north to south the sequence is: Ras Ghamila, Ras Nasrani, Ras Bob, White Knight, Far Garden, Middle Garden, Near Garden, Sodfa, Tower, Amphoras, Turtle Bay, Paradise, Ras Umm Sid, Temple, and Ras Katy.

Sandy plateaus and modest drop-offs are the typical structure. Currents are usually mild. The reefs themselves are the draw — productive coral coverage, healthy fish populations, and the occasional larger visitor.

The standard species mix on these reefs is the regional Red Sea fauna at modest depth. Hard and soft corals on the slopes and walls. Reef fish in numbers across the structure. The local sites also retain the chance of larger encounters: manta rays and whale sharks pass through, especially during the seasons when plankton concentrations bring them inshore.

Thomas Reef is the smallest of the four Tiran reefs. It is also the one technical divers come specifically to dive: a canyon begins at 35m on the parallel face and drops to 92m, running the full length of the main reef below recreational depth.

The dive starts at the southern tip on a colourful wall that opens into a plateau at 25m. Go slow here. A row of large fan corals lines the plateau and longnose hawkfish hide in the branches — this is the most species-dense section of the dive. Whitetip reef sharks patrol the plateau edge, and schools of tuna and barracuda hold nearby.

The northern tip is exposed. Current comes from the front and back of the reef simultaneously at the most northerly point; tuck in or it stops you. Push through when conditions allow and the back of the reef opens into overhangs sheltering schooling black-and-white snappers.

The fan coral row at 25m rewards patience: large specimens hold longnose hawkfish in their branches, and most divers move past them too quickly to see the fish. Whitetip reef sharks work the plateau edge. Tuna and barracuda schools gather in the same zone. At the back of the reef, black-and-white snappers school in the overhangs.

Tower is named for the large fossil coral tower at the dive entry, an obvious surface-recognised landmark that the boat skipper anchors against without needing GPS. The dive has an unusual structural mix for a local site: vertical wall, deep canyon, sloping reef with pinnacles, and a final overhang with macro subjects. Each section reads differently and the dive earns its reputation by stringing them together.

The headline structure is a vertical canyon that drops to 120m below recreational depth, a dramatic enough piece of geology that divers occasionally try to push the canyon depth itself when the entire dive plan is built around staying shallow on the canyon wall. You do not dive to 120m. The canyon wall is best worked at 18m, where overhangs hold glassfish and cave sweepers and the reef geometry pushes out into clear blue water.

The 18m canyon wall is the dive's busiest section. Glassfish fill the overhangs in dense clouds. Cave sweepers occupy the darker pockets. Light penetrates deep through the clear water beyond the wall and creates sun beams that appear to rise from the canyon's invisible bottom — the visual is the canyon's signature.

Past the canyon, the slope and ridge pinnacles support nudibranch and small starfish populations. Slow approach. The end-of-dive overhang shelters red fire sponges with pyjama nudibranches. The safety stop happens on top of the final pinnacle, which is covered in blue stag coral, with sergeant majors schooling around the diver.