RAS MOHAMED 

The Anemone City, Shark Reef and Jolanda Reef are the most popular and well-known Egyptian Red Sea diving site in Ras Mohamed due to their diverse marine life of fish and corals.
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Ras Mohamed

one of the world's best diving spots

Almost at the southern tip of Sinai, there are two large and one small free-standing reefs in Ras Moḥamed National Park at the exit of Hidden Bay. The more northerly of the two large reefs is the Shark Reef, the more southerly the Jolanda Reef. North of Shark Reef is a coral group called Anemone City. To the west of Jolanda Reef there is another, much smaller reef that is simply called Satellite Reef. The reef roofs are about half a meter below the water surface.
Dive Site Facts - Ras Mohamed - Reef - Wreck
Description: Reef - Wreck
This is not a dive for the inexperienced!
Depth range: 28-50 Meter
Visibility: 10-40 Meter
Water temperature: 19 ° C – 28 ° C
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Location and surroundings
Ras Mohamed is one of the world's best diving spots. Due to its special location, all types of large fish can be spotted here.
Description and information
Ras Mohamed is the most famous and popular diving site in the Red Sea due to the diversity of its underwater landscapes and, above all, the exceptional richness of its pelagic and reef fauna.
However, it is best to visit Shark Bay during the summer months (especially July) to be able to admire this place in all its glory. It should also be noted that the incredible spectacle of hundreds of schools of barracuda, mackerel and batfish, which appear like magic to the observer's eyes, is only reserved for divers with adequate technical knowledge to be able to cope with the often strong currents .
The dives that are possible in this area of ​​Ras Mohamed and can be carried out as drift dives are numerous and can be modified at will, taking into account some factors (weather conditions, strength and direction of the current, technical level of the group, etc.).
Nevertheless, the most classic and complete route allows to visit not only Shark Reef, but also the other two nearby dive sites, Anemone City and Yolanda Reef, in a single dive.
The dive at Ras Mohamed begins northeast of Shark Reef at the height of a plateau, commonly known as Anemone City, which is between 12 and 20 meters deep and juts out like a large balcony over the deep blue. A large collection of anemones (Heteractis magnifica and Enmactaea Quadricolor), between whose stinging tentacles live multicolored red sea anemonefish (Amphiprion bicinctus), has populated this plateau, in which the light sand is interrupted by madreporian formations.

The final voyage: In 1941 after an extensive refit she left Britain bound for Alexandria, via the Cape of Good Hope with yet another cargo of coal. Stopping at Durban and Aiden on route, she finally entered the Straits of Gubal, and was ordered to anchorage H to await further instructions.

At a depth of 14 meters you notice a kind of large metal peg rising vertically from the plateau, which was erected in the 1970s (apparently) in memory of a missing diver.
After exploring Anemone City at Ras Mohamed, you have to continue swimming in the blue for a few minutes at a depth of 20 meters on a 150° course that leads directly to Shark Reef - clearly recognizable by the unmistakable profile of some gorgonians. From here you keep the wall to your right, which drops vertically into an abyss over 700 meters deep, and dive around the coral stock.
If you look into the blue, you can easily see schools of batfish (Platax sp.-) and barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), which sometimes swim in a circular formation, mackerel (Cranax sp:; Carangoides sp.), snapper (Lutjanus bohar and Lutjanus monostigma ) and swarms of street sweepers (Lethrinus nebulosus, Monotaxis grandoculis, etc.).
After swimming a few dozen meters, you reach the sandy, shallow saddle that connects Shark Reef with Yolanda Reef, whose profile emerges immediately afterwards.
Now follow the southern wall of this last madrepore stock, and after swimming past its southern corner, at a depth of between 25 and 10 meters, you will see the remains of the Yolanda, a Cypriot cargo ship that sailed here on the night of the 1st to the 2nd. April 1980 sank on his way to Aqaba, note: containers, toilets, bathtubs, wallpaper, crates of whiskey and even a BMW 320 that belonged to the captain and between which were large Malabar groupers (Epinephelus malabaricus), Napoleon wrasses (Cheilinus undulatus). ), single-spotted snapper (Lutjanus monostigma) and fusilier (Caesio sp.) frolic.
Ras Mohamed / Yolanda – Yolanda Riff
The ship, which partially rose above the water surface at Ras Mohamed and was in an unstable position with the bow stuck vertically in the ground, was pushed by the waves to a depth of 50 meters in early 1987 and disappeared on March 15 of the same year of a violent sea storm in the blue below.
The dive usually ends with the exploration of this area, but if you still have air reserves you can continue with the circumnavigation of Yolanda Reef to explore the back lagoon and between two of the bluespotted rays (Taeniura lymma), scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis sp.) , stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa), Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) and crocodile fish (Cociella crocodila) to explore the saddle inhabited by Madrepora hives.

* Ship type: Cargo ship
* Location: Ras Mohamed
* Year of construction: 1964
* Length: 74.8m
* Width: 11.7 m
* Tonnage: 1,970 t
* Sinking: 1st-2nd April 1980
* Complete disappearance of the wreck: March 15, 1987

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