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Dahab is famous for diving, so BEDAWI will give you more information about some of the dive sites in this area.
Lighthouse, situated in Ghazala Bay, is the busiest dive site in Dahab because of its easy entrance and it is used by all levels of divers. It is the perfect site for courses refreshers and night dives. It is a beautiful reef close to the shore with a depth of 55 metres with spectacular pinnacles decorated with corals and anemones visited by thousands of reef fishes.
To the right of the Light House, there is an extended area of turtle grass with sea horses, frog fish, nudibranches, ghost pipe fish, maray eels, stone fish, lion fish and crustaceans. It is also possible to spot a sea turle which lives in the area.
A litlle bit further north along te coastline is the dive site Eel Garden and a few kilometres more to the north (a 30 minutes drive) you will find the most famous dive site of Egypt: The Blue Hole. It is right on the shore in a small bay and it can be entered from and easy entry pier.
The Blue Hole is a shaft, 150 metres wide and 110 metres deep, that starts just a metre below the surface of the sea. The shaft is connected with the sea by a tunnel of 26 metres on a depth of 52 metres.
Be aware! This tunnel can be reached by technical divers only!
People die here almost every year, mainly from nitrogen narcosis.
It is an exhilarating experience to cross The Blue Hole as, in the middle, all reference points are lost and it feels like being in the middle of the ocean.
The best way to dive at the Blue Hole is to make a drift dive (currents permitting) from the dive site The Bells, less thean 100 metres north of the Blue Hole. The Bells is a natural crack, a half open chimney of 30 metres, which opens on a drop off at 47,5 metres. You can dive along this chimney to a depth of 26 metres, where you pass through a natural arch. Here you will find a beautiful reef with hanging corals and you swimm by the many Lionfishes. You exit into the blue above a breath taking drop off, while you keep a close eye on your dive computer as you are in the deep blue water. You then follow the soft coral and mushroom coral encrusted wall to the south until you reach The Blue Hole-saddle at 15 metres. From the saddle you enter and cross The Blue Hole to the exit. This is a stunning dive.
There is an overnight accomodation available at The Bells, a few minutes walk from The Blue Hole, although not many people decide to stay after dark.
Note The Blue Hole gets especially busy between 11.00 am and 03.00 pm with all the day trips froms Sharm el Sheikh, so to get the best out of diving we make sure to arrive early morning or late afternoon, to enjoy a peaceful experience.
The Blue Hole is not only for divers, it is chillingly fascinating for snorkellers too. The corals are colourful, the fish abundant and you can tickle your nerves by swimming along the edge of the shaft that has no visible bottom.
While you are here, we advise you to visit another beautiful dive site nearby: The Canyon. Ancient seismic activity created this great fracture in the reef table, a long, narrow and beautiful gully formed of tunnels and cracks which begin at a depth of 23 metres with The Fish Bowl (the widest part) and end at 91 metres with a window that opens in the blue.
The Fish Bowl is very beautiful but unfortunately, nowadays it cannot be entered for safety reasons, but it can be admired from the outside.
The entrance to this site is usually done through a shoal in a sandy lagoon off the coast, teeming with fishes, which exits in the open with a 5 metres deep 'saddle' that serves as entrance (and exit) to the open sea and the coral gardens. After passing 2 pinnacles that stand watch at the entrance of the lagoon, the dive continues to the left and after 23 metres the main entrance of The Canyon is found at a depth of 29 metres.
Diving through the gully is easy and the light effects of the sunrays through the canyon are surreal. The gully is nowadays overgrown with hard and soft corals. It goes from north to south from the shallow reef near the coast to a depth of approx. 55 metres, where you can admire the clouds of glassfishes and the dark cavities. Divers exit The Canyon from the same entry point. The many airbubbles produced by the divers, escape through cracks in the coral-block which has an amazing effect.
These two famous dive sitesare famous due to the depth, with cave and arch diving possibilities. However to enjoy these dive sites to the full, divers should hold and Advanced Diving qualification or to go to great depths a Technical Diving qualification.
There are several smaller and less frequented dive sites along the route that offer the opportunity to dive away from the crowds, like The Canyon Japanese Garden. This dive site can be visited as the second dive of a Canyon day excursion. At the exit of the lagoon, divers turn right and follow the drop off with the garden to the right until they swim back in shallow water over the beautiful hard and soft corals which puntuate the white sandy bottom. Anthias, crocodile fish, glass fishes and unicorn fishes populate this mesmerizing garden.
Note There are hotel and resort developments planned in this area, some of them are now completed. We expect this area to become another small centre outside of town soon, so this area (still fairly quiet) will become much busier in the future.
In the El Qura Bay area you will find several dive sites close to the Lagoona and the dive site The Islands is the most popular. It is considered to be one of the best dive sites in Dahab. The maximum depth is approx. 31 metres in an incredible maze of hard coral formed by 3 coral islands which rise from a sandy bottom. The first island is found at 55 metres from the shore reef. After swimming around this island, divers move toward the shore where they find the second and third islands. The third island is the biggest and encloses 3 pools with a white sandy bottom where yellow barracudas swim lazily. It is also a great snorkeling spot.
Golden Blocks is an easy but very beautiful dive, no deeper than 18 metres around two pinnacles that reach the surface and are covered by clouds of anthias. The calm and warm water, due to its sheltered position, is teeming with life. The Golden Blocks lie on a sandy bottom and you will find gardens formed by all species of coral typical of the Red Sea area. Even in shallow water it is possible to find beautiful coral, big groupers and colourful nudibranches. Under the coral outcrops hide spotted rays. It is a sloping coral table divided by three sandy tongues that descend to a depth of 37 metres. Another looks like a canyon holding a small coral outcrop and a third holds a beautiful fan coral (at a depth of 40 metres) which stands at the mouth of a small cave.
Note It is possible to do a drift dive from Golden Blocks to Moray Garden.
If you take from El Qura Bay the road south to Wadi Gnai you can visit the dive site Moray Garden. It is easily accesible from the wide beach and it's an excellent diving spot that gently slopes to 20 metres. It is possible to find giant moray eels, crocodile fish, schools of glass fish and sometimes the rare Red Sea Walkman. Banner fish and groupers are quite common. Easy to spot, are also the giant clams with their coloured shells, which collect sun light for the algae which live in symbiotic relation with them. After a ten minutes dive to the south of the entry point, there is a coral outcrop at 40 metres, populated by glass fish. On the way back to the beach there are red coloured anemones.
In the wide reef table of Three Pools there are 3 sandy pools connected to each other through coral saddles, which serve as entry and exit point to this divesite. Outside the third pool, it is possible to meet a juvenile Napoleon Fish, which lives in the area, and it's here that divers turn left and swim towards the open sea. Following a sloping coral tongue, you meet great outcrops of lettuce- and brain coral until a depth of 27 metres, and further into the deep it is mixed with many pinnacles. Sometimes you meet a turtle that comes to feed on the turtle grass which grows alongside the coral tongue. This dive ends in shallow water where red corals grows from the white sandy bottom.
Also located to the south of Dahab, not far from the southern oasis, we find dive site Umm Sid which is famous for 2 great coral fans anchored to the hard bottom at a depth of 67 metres. Divers enter this site through a corridor in the reef which slopes down towards a sandy bottom which flattens at a depth of 36 metres. Divers swim around a tongue of coral over a bottom full of sand eels and reach the big fan corals after a swim of 46 metres. The biggest fan has a diameter of approx. 3 metres and in its branches Hawk Fish find shelter sometimes joined by Spanish Dancers and other nudibranches. The dive ends after a safety stop around a great pinnacle near the entry point.
The Nabq Protected Area is located south of Dahab where many hardly known divesites can be found. For example you can find here the unusual dive site The Caves. This dive starts with a giant stride from a coral reef with 2 big caves under it. Divers descend over a ravine, made of round stones, that was created by an ancient avalance in the middle of which a big coral outpost pushes itself out to sea and drops steeply from the surface to the bottom at 91 metres. Sand Eels and Trompet Fish are to been found on the ravine and Turtles, Moray Eels, Lion Fish and Napoleon Fish in the coral area. This dive ends with a visit to the caves where black coral hangs from the ceiling. The entry and exit to this divesite can be difficult with high sea or low tide.
Mzeina Bedouins reside in Dahab, in the tourist area. This allows us to organize something unique in the diving world:
THE CAMEL DIVING SAFARI
Below we mention some possibilities for diving safari's
(by jeep, by camel or by boat)
You go by jeep to The Blue Hole where camel caravans leave and walk along the shore, where the small wadis run down from the granite coastal mountains to plunge into the sea. After approx. 5 kilometres (1,5 hour) they reach the Ras Abu Galum Protected Area. Once you reach the campsite, the staff of the dive centre will assemble the camp with modern tents. At Ras Abu Galum one can find beautiful coral reefs in a pristine condition where turtles and rays are often seen.
Note If you are not fond of riding on a camel there is now a boat service available for diving in Ras Abu Galum.
Note If you are not fond of riding a camel and you get sea sick on a boat, you can go all the way by jeep. You will have to take a longer route and this will involve the hire of a jeep for your whole safari, hence extra costs.
There are also dive- and snorkelling safari's by camel, which give you the opportunity to visit more remote reefs teaming with life.
From Ras Abu Galum you can take a jeep to Ras Mamlukh where you can find two amazing dive sites. This is the most remote dive site, so it has to be an overnight dive safari.
You can go further by taking a dive safari to Gabr El Bint which is one of the most spectacular dive sites in south Sinai. As it is not easy to get to it, its conditions are pristine. There are 2 main dive sites. The right site, known as the dark site, has a steep drop off which reaches a depth of 110 metres with many crevices, sandy hangings and beautiful coral. The left side is the most colourful and is colonized by a forest of huge fan corals and often turtles can be seen.
Note A one day dive safari to Gabr El Bint can be done by jeep to Wadi Gnai (20 min.) and then by camel (2 hours) or by boat (1 hour) from the pier at The Lagoona.
Not far to the south of Dahab is the dive site Napoleon Reef where you find a great lagoon closed by a long and wide tongue of coral. It is an excellent dive for beginners because of the shallow depth (16 to 27 metres). At the tip of the coral reef there is a thick pinnacle around which all kind of tropical fishes swim and great coral formations rise from the hard coral base. Sting Rays, Scorpion Fish and of course Napoleon Fish are common. This dive is often done as third dive of the day at the end of a boat safari to Gabr El Bint.
The Nabq Protected Area is huge (it covers most of the area between Sharm el Sheikh and Dahab) and offers a wide variety of dive sites including wreck diving, reefs and mangrove diving. It is just 1 hour away from Dahab by jeep and it is worth considering an overnight stay in a private hut, as there is so much to see.
Dive safaris can be organized to suit your experience (minimum PADI Open Water). A dive guide is allowed to take maximum 6 persons.
We hope that the information on our website has stimulated your appetite to travel in our Sinai and we hope to see you soon...
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