The Brother Islands
El Akhawein, the two Brothers, are the small Islands that just break
the surface in the centre of the Red Sea. Big Brother, which is
easily identified with it's lighthouse, is about 100 metres across
and 400 metres in length, with two extremities to the east and west.
Little Brother lies about 800 metres east of Big Brother. They are
the peaks of two pillars surrounded by narrow coastal reef, which
rises up from the abyss 300 metres deep and are part of the Marine
Park Island National Park.The islands offer stunning wall diving
and a breath-taking display of colour with their rich variety of
soft corals and gorgonians which cover the walls. You will find
large and small fish here in abundance; tuna, barracuda, shoals of
snappers and jack fish, as well a hammerheads, grey reef shark,
silky and oceanic white tip sharks, even the occasional thresher
shark and manta ray.
Big Brother Island also has two wrecks for divers lying on its
walls; the Aida II, an 82 metre long Egyptian military supply ship
that sank in 1957, and the Numidia, a cargo ship carrying locomotive
spare parts to India. They are both covered in a rich growth of hard
and soft corals.
Daedalus Reef
This is a large oval reef with a lighthouse and is surrounded by
a sheer wall all around and a plateau to the south at 30 to 40
metres in depth. This is a good place for spotting hammerheads,
thresher sharks, mantas and whale shark.
Zabargad Island
This wonderful dive site offers wall diving, a wreck and shallow
areas with dozens of slender coral towers. Here live a great many
tropical groupers, which are easily approached and photographed
during a dive without equals in its category. When diving here at
night you will find octopus, crustaceans and nudibranches emerge to
crowd through the coral grottos.
Rocky Island
This small fossil-coral island emerges from the surface, elliptical
in shape, surrounded by a surface level reef. The island sinks it
walls down to more that 1000 metres of water. The walls are covered
in soft corals and huge gorgonians which float and wave in the
current. It is possible to sight many species of shark here as well
as sailfish, dolphins and manta rays.
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NOTE: All dive sites are subject to weather
conditions and level of diver experience (Egyptian law
requires that all divers have a minimum of 50 logged
dives for a marine park safari).
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