Diving

Diving is one of the favourite tourist activities in Egypt. Underwater diving can be defined as the practice of swimming underwater while putting on specialized equipment. The equipment divers use is underwater breathing apparatus, but other essential equipment makes plunging safer and more convenient. In addition to the breathing apparatus, divers put other parts – a mask, swim-fins and wet suit. This equipment allows the diver to descend below the water’s surface to interact with the environment for long periods. This equipment facilitates this activity as it lets breathing while the body down the surface.

Recreational diving (sometimes called sport diving, scuba diving, or sub-aquatics) is widespread. It is widely known in all its tropical Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Safaga and Marsa Alam.

Egypt’s reefs are teeming with life; bright corals and clouds of fish dazzle with a kaleidoscope of colour. With wonderfully calm and clear conditions, Egyptian reefs offer ideal conditions for new divers, marine life enthusiasts, wreck divers, or anyone interested in exploring light-filled reef systems.

Due to the excellent visibility and the easy access to excess depths, it’s an attractive location for technical diving and training. Egypt offers the whole gambit of diving opportunities: wrecks, walls, drifts, pinnacles, shore dives, day boats and liveaboards.

Many of the diving destinations offer access to famous Egyptian historic sites. Still, it’s also easy to arrange a holiday split over a couple of locations so you can experience various dive sites and some culture, too.

When to dive in Egypt

The great thing about diving in Egypt is it’s possible all year round with water temperatures ranging from 21°C to 28°C, and you can expect visibility from 20-50 mtrs.

If Hammerhead sharks are on your bucket list, head to Egypt between June and September. This is also when the water temperature is at its warmest. The best time to spot a Whale Shark is between May and August, although they have been known to be spotted at any time of year.

Dive Sites

SS Thistlegorm

The SS Thistlegorm is one of the most famous wrecks in the world. Built in 1940, the SS Thistlegorm was a 126-meter-long freighter carrying military equipment during World War II. The wreck attracts many divers for the cargo that can be seen and explored. Boots and motorcycles are visible in Hold No. 1. Trucks, armoured vehicles, motorcycles, Wellington boots, rifles, wings, engine exhaust rings and cylinders are visible in Hold No. 2. Off to the port side of the wreck level with the blast area can be found one of the steam locomotives which had been stored as deck cargo and the other locomotive is off the starboard side level with Hold No. 2.

Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef

Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef are rated as one of the world’s top ten dives and perhaps the most famous dive sites of the Ras Mohammed National Park. The two reefs rise from untold depths to the surface, creating a breathtaking, stunning, dramatic topography.

The dive is completed as a drift dive and is usually started in the direction of Shark Reef to Yolanda. With this dive, it is essential to be quick on the entry; otherwise, it is possible to drift on the surface and miss the most fantastic wall. It is a sheer drop down to 800 meters plus.

Snappers, batfish, barracuda, and many more hang out on the wall, especially when they mass together in the July/August peak. It’s like diving in fish soup. The current takes you to the saddle, connecting the reef between two vast pinnacles. Depending on the currents, your dive guide will guide you around the front of Yolanda Reef.

Look out into the blue as there are often sizeable pelagic fish passing. The dive finishes on the remains of the wreck of the ‘Yolanda’. This dive can be a roller coaster ride of currents, which turn every which way during the dive – but it is an adrenaline-pumping excellent experience.

Wood House – Straits of Tiran

This is the longest reef of the four in the Straits of Tiran and is dived as a drift dive, usually from South to North. Jumping at the southern part of the reef is a wall of about 30m. It is worth looking at the sand patches below to try and spot sleeping sharks.

The coral covers from the surface down the wall, becoming more of a slope as the dive progresses. Halfway through the dive, a canyon goes along the reef at about 25m, which spreads out into a coral garden with sand alleys. This is usually where the current starts to pick up.

If the conditions on the west side of the reef are rough, the dive has to end at the coral garden’s end, which is usually reached after about 50 minutes. Continuing the dive beyond this point is sometimes possible if weather conditions allow. Where the reef leaves the surface and funnels down towards Jackson Reef, this area is called the washing machine due to the strong currents going in all directions.

Thomas Reef – Straits of Tiran

This is the most miniature reef in the Straits and one of the most popular. The dive is governed by the weather conditions as the western side is often impossible to pick divers up from. The dive is done as a drift dive with potentially strong currents on the southern and northern ends of the reef. The ends are vertical walls with a large plateau at about 25m on the southeastern side.

This plateau often has sleeping sharks on the sand patches, and the coral has a fence of Gorgonia fans at the end. After the Gorgonia fans, the reef returns to a wall before coming to the corner of the reef to watch the currents. If conditions allow, it is possible to go round to the other side of the reef, a wall disappearing into the deep.