Route Description - Best of the Red Sea: Daedalus–Rocky Island–Zabargad-St. Johns-Elphinstone
Embark on an unforgettable diving expedition through the Red Sea, exploring its renowned sites such as Daedalus Reef, Elphinstone, St Johns, Zabargad, Rocky Island, and Shaab Maksur. Daedalus Reef, located 180 km south of Brother Islands, features a sheer wall and a southern plateau teeming with marine life, including reef and hammerhead sharks. Elphinstone, a north-south reef with steep walls, attracts sharks feeding on its abundant reef fish. Near the Sudanese border, St Johns offers numerous dive sites rising from an underwater plateau. Zabargad, known for its ancient olivine mines, showcases a south wall with scenic passages. Rocky Island, with submerged rocks and sandy areas, features beautiful corals and sightings of leopard and whitetip reef sharks. Lastly, Shaab Maksur, a small but long reef with plateaus and drop-offs, is home to dolphins, barracudas, and reef sharks.
Daedalus Reef
The Daedalus Reef is a huge reef formation that lies at about 180km south of Brother Islands. The reef is surrounded by a sheer wall all around, featuring a plateau on its southern side that goes from 28m beside the reef to 40m on the edge of the drop-off. If the weather is good, try to get as far north as possible and drift along one of the sides of the reef. Reef and hammerhead sharks are often spotted here. Underwater marine life is here more abundant than anywhere else, with schools of surgeons, fusiliers, carangids.
Elphinstone
This long finger like reef runs from north to south in the open Red Sea. Steep walls drop to the depths on the reef’s east and west sides, while the north and south ends of the reefs are marked by submerged plateau. Sharks often swim by the spot to feed on the abundant reef fish population.
St Johns
This vast reef system lies furthest to the south on the Egyptian side, 10 miles from the Sudanese border. There are dozens of excellent dives. Its reefs rise up from a gigantic underwater plateau hidden in the inky blue water.
Zabargad
The island of Zabargad has been known since the time of the pharaohs for the presence of the ancient mines from which olivine was extracted, a green stone similar to the emerald. In Zabargad you will dive along the south wall characterized by a multitude of very scenic passages.
Rocky Island
The site features several submerged rocks surrounded by sandy areas with a nice swim- through at around 20 m deep. There is beautiful staghorn and hard coral. You can often find a leopard shark and a whitetip reef shark resting on the sand. Turtles and pelagis fishes like the Giant Trevally are common too. The maximum depth is around 39 meters deep but most of the dive is done around 15 meters. The current can be quite strong and this dive spot is better suited to open water advanced divers.
Shaab Maksur
Shaab Maksur is a small but long reef with a plateau in the north and south and drop offs in the west and east side. At the north terraced plateau you can see often dolphins, barracudas or reef sharks passing by. The south plateau with its bigger coral blocks is home for many species.