The southern tip of Sinai — the best shore diving in Egypt, with desert mountains directly behind the beach.
Sharm el-Sheikh sits at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, where the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Red Sea. Ras Mohammed National Park is on its doorstep and the Strait of Tiran is a short boat ride north.
It has the best diving in Egypt and, for many divers, some of the best in the world.
The reefs here drop into very deep water very close to shore, which produces wall diving of a kind that usually requires a long boat journey elsewhere. Ras Mohammed, the Tiran reefs and the Thistlegorm wreck are all within a day's reach.
Much of it is accessible without diving at all. At places like the Blue Hole further north, and at reef edges throughout the area, coral and fish start in a couple of metres of water.
The setting is dramatic in a way the mainland coast is not — bare red and grey Sinai mountains rising directly behind the beaches, and desert immediately behind those.
And Sinai gives you options beyond the water: Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai are a few hours inland, and Dahab is ninety minutes up the coast.
Sharm developed as a diving destination from the 1980s and grew rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s into a large resort city.
Ras Mohammed became Egypt's first national park in 1983, which protected the most important reefs early and is a large part of why the diving here remains as good as it does.
The most famous dive here is a ship. The SS Thistlegorm, a British supply vessel sunk by aircraft in 1941 while carrying trucks, motorcycles, rifles and locomotives for the North Africa campaign, lies within day-boat range. Jacques Cousteau dived it in the 1950s, its position then faded from general knowledge, and its rediscovery in the early 1990s gave the Red Sea what is routinely called the best wreck dive in the world.
The Strait of Tiran, where the Gulf of Aqaba narrows against Tiran Island, funnels current across four named reefs — Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon. The current is why the coral is so rich, and why they are dived as drifts.
Naama Bay was the original tourist centre; development has since spread along the coast to Nabq, Sharks Bay and Hadaba.
Year round. Summer is very hot on land; winter is mild with cooler water that still needs no more than a 5mm wetsuit.
Opening hours: Not applicable — a town rather than a site.
Opening hours and ticket prices may change. Please confirm the latest details before visiting.
The quietest stretch of the Egyptian Red Sea — house reefs, dugongs and turtles, and very little else.
A low-key town on the Gulf of Aqaba where the diving is world class and nobody is in a hurry.
The Red Sea's largest resort town, and the easiest place in Egypt to add a beach week to a Nile itinerary.
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