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Red Sea Gem · South Sinai

Ras
Mohamed

Southern Tip of Sinai · 20km from Sharm el-Sheikh

Egypt's first marine national park. An 800-metre reef wall, a toilet wreck, an anemone city science cannot explain, and the strongest marine protection on the Egyptian coast.

800m

Reef Wall Depth

480km²

National Park

15%

Endemic Fish Species

1983

Protected Since

← All Gems

Overview

Where two seas converge

Ras Mohamed is the southernmost point of the Sinai Peninsula, the tip of land where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba meet at the northern edge of the Red Sea. It is not a resort or a town. It is a national park, designated Egypt's first in 1983, and the most substantive marine protected area on the Egyptian coast.

The park covers 480 square kilometres of reef, open water and coastline. Fishing is prohibited throughout and the rule is enforced. What that level of protection produces is visible in the water: large resident fish populations, coral structures that have not been stripped by extraction, and predictable pelagic encounters. The reef wall at the park's western point drops to approximately 800 metres, driven to this richness by a current funnelling north through the strait. Approximately 15 percent of the fish species observed here are endemic to the Red Sea and found nowhere else on earth.

The two flagship sites, Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, are separated by a shallow saddle and sit side by side on the western face of the point. Shark Reef delivers exactly what the name suggests, with grey reef sharks working the corner and seasonal hammerhead aggregations at the northern tip. Yolanda Reef is stranger and more memorable: a Cypriot freighter ran aground here in a storm in 1980 and spilled its entire cargo across the reef. The cargo was bathroom fittings. Hundreds of toilets, sinks, bathtubs and a BMW now lie on the seabed, encrusted with coral, visible in the middle of one of the best wall dives in the Red Sea.

Anemone City, a shelf at 16–20 metres just northeast of Shark Reef, holds one of the densest concentrations of giant sea anemones known anywhere on earth in an area covering less than 100 square metres. No scientific explanation for this aggregation has been established. On the north side of the point, the mangrove channel is an entirely different environment: shallow, calm and among the only accessible mangrove systems on the Sinai coast. The whole site can be covered in a day, and most divers come on day trips from Sharm, 25 minutes away by boat.

Above the water, the park has one of the best beaches on the Red Sea coast. A wide arc of white sand sits on the protected inside of the headland, facing the calm channel between the point and the open sea. The water is shallow and clear, the current negligible in the lee of the land. It is the kind of beach that is genuinely difficult to find elsewhere in Egypt: clean, undeveloped and quiet on a weekday outside peak season. Camping near the beach is available through a Bedouin guide based on site, with basic tent accommodation and two meals a day. It must be arranged in advance. It is one of the few places on the Sinai coast where you can spend the night inside a marine protected area and enter the water at first light.

Dive Sites

Seven dive sites, one park

Shark & Yolanda Reef

The flagship dive at Ras Mohamed and one of the most celebrated in the Red Sea. The route runs along the wall from the Shark Reef corner, where grey reef sharks work the current and hammerhead aggregations appear at the north tip from May through August, down the saddle and around to Yolanda Reef, then continues to Satellite Reef where most dives end. Anemone City, a shelf at 16–20 metres just northeast of the corner, is part of this dive: an area of less than 100 square metres holds one of the densest sea anemone concentrations known anywhere on earth. Yolanda Reef is named for a Cypriot freighter that ran aground in 1980, spilling its entire cargo across the reef, hundreds of toilets, sinks and a BMW, now coral-encrusted on the seabed. The wall drops to approximately 800 metres.

Wall · Wreck · Pelagic

Jackfish Alley

A drift dive running through the sand corridor between the main reef and a parallel satellite reef north of the point. Two large caves in the corridor walls are filled with glassfish. The site is named for the dense jackfish schools that concentrate where the channel current accelerates. Whitetip reef sharks rest in the caves. Barracuda, snappers and trevally throughout.

Drift · Caves

Shark Observatory

A deep wall site on the outer face of the park, also known as the Ras Mohamed Wall. The wall drops to 90 metres and is cut with caves and overhangs draped in black coral and gorgonians. Despite the name, resident shark numbers are lower here than at Shark Reef, the site delivers pelagic action: trevally, barracuda, large Napoleon wrasse, and whale sharks seasonally. Best with current running.

Wall · Deep

Ras Ghozlani

The northern tip of the Marsa Bareika bay. A drift dive from 0 to 30 metres: fringe reef at 8–15 metres, then a sandy plateau with coral heads, then a drop-off at 22–26 metres lined with sea fans and pinnacles. One of the better critter dives in the park, octopus, bluespotted stingrays, pufferfish, groupers and glassfish in the reef structure.

Drift · Critters

Ras Za'atar

The southern entrance to Marsa Bareika bay. A steep wall site with caves, overhangs and chimney structures running through the reef. Lionfish in the openings, Malabar groupers on the wall, longnose hawkfish on the gorgonians, black coral below 25 metres. More sheltered than the outer wall sites and diveable in conditions that close the exposed western face.

Wall · Caves

Eel Garden

South of Jackfish Alley, accessible from the shore by road inside the park. A sandy slope running from 6 metres to beyond 30, with a large resident colony of garden eels covering the substrate, hundreds of animals swaying in the current before retracting as you approach. A small cave partway down the slope. Good macro site; far less visited than the outer wall dives.

Slope · Shore Dive

Marsa Bareika

The mouth of the protected bay on the east side of the point. A steep slope covered in coral heads leads to a reef flat at 15 metres, then the wall drops further. The bay provides shelter from northerly winds and is one of the more reliably calm sites in the park. Dense reef fish populations and a cleaner shrimp station at the entrance to the main cave.

Reef · Slope

The Park

What protection actually looks like

Ras Mohamed was designated Egypt's first national park in 1983. The marine protected area includes the reef system around the point, the coastal strip and open water extending several kilometres offshore. Entry requires a park fee, and visitors who have not already obtained an Egyptian visa must do so before entry. The standard policy is take nothing, leave nothing, and enforcement is active rather than nominal.

The terrestrial part of the park has its own character. The headland is desert limestone, bone-dry, with cliffs dropping straight to the sea. Fossil coral formations are visible above the current waterline, evidence of old reef systems exposed as the land rises on the same tectonic forces that are slowly widening the Red Sea. The views across the strait from the point itself are exceptional: open ocean to the south, the Gulf of Suez running northwest, the Gulf of Aqaba northeast, and on a clear day the Saudi coast visible to the east.

Morning dives are the standard protocol: the best visibility and calmest surface conditions are in the first half of the day, and afternoon winds from the north regularly build sea state across the open water between Sharm and the park. Almost all dive boats arrive before 10am and are back at the marina before early afternoon.

Atlas Position

Ras Mohamed is the clearest demonstration on the Egyptian coast of what marine protection produces when it is applied consistently. The difference between the reef here and the heavily dived sites closer to Hurghada is not subtle. We recommend it without reservation for any diver or snorkeller visiting Sharm el-Sheikh, the day trip is short, the sites are exceptional, and the park entry fee is money well spent. Book morning departures.

Getting There

Getting to the park

From Sharm by boat

~25–30 minutes

From Sharm by road

~25 minutes (20km)

Park entry

Fee payable at gate

Visa

Required · Buy at airport

Most visitors come on a day trip from Sharm el-Sheikh. Every dive centre in Sharm runs daily boats to the park, typically departing at 8–9am and returning by early afternoon. The crossing takes 25–30 minutes each way. Visitors arriving by road use the main entry gate on the Sharm–Ras Mohamed road; the park is 20km from the city centre. Park entry requires a fee payable at the gate, and an Egyptian tourist visa is required before arrival, arrange this at the airport. Liveaboard trips departing Sharm often stop at Ras Mohamed on the first night of a trip south. Camping within the park is available near the beach and run by a Bedouin guide based on site. The setup is basic but functional: a tent and sleeping area, a main hut, and two meals a day. It must be arranged in advance directly with the guide, this is not a walk-in operation. It is one of the few places on the Sinai coast where you can sleep inside a marine protected area, with the reef accessible from the shore at first light.