South and Deep South of Egypt

Diving has become a mainstream sport, and the Red Sea has changed from an isolated paradise for rugged exporters to a multimillion-dollar tourism industry on a massive scale. But the reefs of the deep south still lie beyond the range of dive packages and those with the time (and the money) to dive these remote reefs can still be the Red Sea as Jacques Cousteau first saw them.

As more and more divers discover the diving areas of northern Egypt, attention has begun to turn to the dive sites of southern Egypt. South Egypt offers warm, clear waters and lush coral gardens without a hint of pollution, along hundreds of kilometers of almost uninhibited coastline.

Surface water conditions play a big part in dive planning. The seasonal wind changes in autumn bring rough seas and swells big enough to make even the largest live-aboard uncomfortable, many operators consider these sites undiveable from September or October onwards, so the ideal season here is summer and high summer.

The diving here is worth any amount of weather-related discomfort. Some of the big names of Red Sea diving lie in these waters - The Brothers, isolated towers of pristine coral rising from abyssal depths and shrouded in schools of sharks; or Zabargad and Rocky Island, almost a holy grail of Egyptian offshore diving with their sheer walls and coral gardens. But there are hundred of lesser-known reefs here that far surpass the best of the northern Red Sea, and they form part of the thrill of exploring the deep south's unknown reefs and seeing sights that few divers will ever see!