Sinai
This ancient monastery traces its founding to about AD 330, when Byzantine empress Helena had a small chapel and a fortified refuge for local hermits…
Must-see attractions in Sinai
Sinai
Known locally as Gebel Musa, Mt Sinai is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, all of whom believe that God delivered his Ten Commandments to Moses at…
Dahab
Carved into a reef, 8km north of Dahab, is Egypt’s most infamous dive site. The Blue Hole is a gaping sinkhole that drops straight down – some say…
Sharm El Sheikh
One of the top five wreck dives in the world, the Thistlegorm is a 129m-long cargo ship built in Sunderland, England, which was sunk during World War II…
Sinai
The waters surrounding this peninsula, 20km west of Sharm El Sheikh, are home to spectacular coral reefs, including the world-famous Shark and Jolanda…
Sharm El Sheikh
One of the best dive sites in the area, Ras Um Sid features a spectacular gorgonian forest along a dramatic drop-off that hosts a great variety of reef…
Sharm El Sheikh
The smallest, but easily the most spectacular, of the Tiran reefs, Thomas is home to steeply plunging walls that are lined with soft coral, schooling fish…
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Sharm El Sheikh
The Dunraven sank in 1876 on its way from Bombay to Newcastle. Today the wreck, found at the southeast tip of Sha’ab Mahmud, is encrusted in coral and…
Ras Mohammed National Park
This two-for-one special off the southern tip of Ras Mohammed is among the most famous dives in the Red Sea and rated one of the top five dives in the…
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Sinai
The alternative path to Mt Sinai's summit comprises the taxing 3750 Steps of Repentance, which begin outside the southeastern corner of St Catherine's…
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Sinai
Above the Well of Moses in St Catherine's Monastery is the superb Monastery Museum, which has been magnificently restored. It has displays (labelled in…
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Sinai
The starkly beautiful Ras Abu Gallum Protectorate covers 400 sq km of coastline between Dahab and Nuweiba, mixing coastal mountains, narrow valleys, sand…
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Sinai
Thirty-five kilometres north of Sharm El Sheikh, Nabq is the largest coastal protectorate on the Gulf of Aqaba. Named after an oasis that lies within its…
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Sinai
One of Sinai's most impressive sites, this ruined Pharaonic temple is surrounded by ancient turquoise mines and starkly beautiful landscapes. Turquoise…
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Sinai
Inside St Catherine's Monastery, this ornately decorated 6th-century church has a nave flanked by marble columns and walls covered in richly gilded icons…
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Sharm El Sheikh
At the perennially popular Gardens there are actually three sites in one. Near Garden is home to a lovely chain of pinnacles; Middle Garden features a…
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Sinai
St Katherine's Protectorate encompasses a rugged landscape of high-altitude desert. Amid this national park, enclosed within stark mountains, is a wealth…
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Sinai
To the south of Wadi Feiran, the 2070m Gebel Serbal (believed by early Christians to have been the real Mt Sinai) is a challenging six-hour hike to the…
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Sinai
This canyon derives its name from the layers of bright, multicoloured stones that resemble paintings on its steep, narrow walls. It's magnificently…
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Sinai
More than a few ships have come a-cropper on this reef, just north of Shedwan Island, so if you're a wreck diving fan, this reef should be high on your…
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Sinai
In 1881 the Kingston (a British iron screw steamer) was on its way to Aden when it struck the reef at Shag Rock and sank. The wreck is now a fascinating…
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Sharm El Sheikh
A good choice for a drift dive, this dive site gets its name from an Ottoman shipwreck found here which was carrying a cargo of amphoras. Not much remains…
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Sharm El Sheikh
Designed by Fouad Tawfik, Sharm El Sheikh's new mosque fuses Fatimid, Mamluk and Ottoman style elements into its architecture and interior design. Whether…
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Nuweiba
The Sinker is a massive submerged mooring buoy designed for cargo ships, which was sunk by mistake in the mid-1990s. Since then it has developed into a…
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Ras Mohammed National Park
This dive site, underneath the promontory of the same name, takes its name from the fact that whale sharks can occasionally be sighted while diving here…
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Sharm El Sheikh
This large reef is fantastic for sealife spotting with banner fish, parrot fish, cornet fish and blue-spotted sting rays all flitting through the hard…
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Sharm El Sheikh
The wide canyon here houses coral-covered pinnacles where you'll spot plenty of nudibranchs and flitting lionfish. This dive site is also known for chance…
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Dahab
Bells is a narrow breach in the reef table that forms a pool close to shore. From here, divers can descend through a chimney, exiting onto a ledge at 27m…
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Dahab
This dive 25km south of Dahab features a dramatic seascape highlighted by a 60m wall cut by numerous chasms, faults and sandy ravines. If you access the…
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Sinai
The area around the spring of Mayat El Wishwashi is great for hiking. The actual spring is hidden within a canyon and only has only a trickle of water,…
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Ras Mohammed National Park
Green arrows lead to Ras Mohammed's Mangrove Channel, one of the most northerly mangrove forests in the world. Nearby, you can see huge cracks (one of the…
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Sinai
Here Sinai’s largest collection of rock inscriptions and stelae, some dating back to the 3rd dynasty, give evidence of ancient turquoise-mining activities…
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Dahab
An impressive entrance through a wide corridor carved into a steeply sloping reef is a highlight of this dive site 15km south of Dahab. Further down you…
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Sinai
Inland from the temple of Serabit Al Khadim, a track heads through the colourful wadis of Gebel Foga to the cliffs that edge Gebel Et Tih Tih and the…
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Dahab
Eel Garden takes its name from the countless garden eels that carpet the sea floor. Other highlights include huge coral boulders and dense congregations…
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Dahab
One of the area’s most popular dives, the Canyon is a long, narrow trench that runs perpendicular to the reef shelf, and is home to prolific hard and soft…
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Ras Mohammed National Park
Aptly named Main Beach gets crowded with day trippers from Sharm El Sheikh, but with its vertical coral walls just offshore, it remains one of the best…
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Ras Mohammed National Park
This clifftop area, near Main Beach, has views over the dive-site area known as the Shark Observatory. Despite the name, you would be very lucky to spot a…
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Ras Mohammed National Park
Off the south lip of the mouth of Marsa Bareika, marking the start of the Ras Mohammed wall, Ras Za’atir has a series of caves and overhangs where black…
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Dahab
This sloping reef is home to a bounty of fish life and is Dahab’s main night-diving site. More experienced divers can descend to the sandy bottom, where…
