Diving in St John's Reefs

St John's is the southernmost reef complex Egyptian liveaboards routinely reach, a sprawling scatter of small reefs, coral islands and submerged pinnacles near the Sudanese border. Its character is coral, cavern and swim-through, gentler underwater than the offshore Brothers, with less current and more wonder. The signature dive is St John's Caves [st-john-caves], a shallow daylight maze where sun pours through the reef roof, the most photographed scene in the Deep South. The largest reef, Gota Kebir [gota-kebir], folds sunlit tunnels and a fishy plateau into one big drift dive, and Small St John [small-st-john] is a soft-coral wall rated among the finest in the Red Sea.

The exception to the gentle character is the two offshore habili pinnacles. Habili Ali [habili-ali] and Habili Gaffar [habili-gaffar] are current-swept, advanced dives where grey reef sharks work cleaning stations and silvertips and seasonal hammerheads pass in the blue. As a whole, though, St John's is not a shark magnet; the reefs are scenery and structure. The other half of the appeal is remoteness: a long crossing, an empty horizon and dark, star-filled nights. As of 2025-2026 a regional bleaching event has dulled some of the coral, so the structure is spectacular but the living cover is patchier than older accounts suggest.

There is no shore base here, so you book a boat and a route rather than a day trip. Fly to Marsa Alam, under 15 minutes from Port Ghalib, or to Hurghada with a longer transfer south, and board a liveaboard for a 7-night South and St John's safari, usually paired with the Fury Shoals reefs and the dolphins at Sha'ab Sataya. The crossing is a long overnight sail of around 200 kilometres. Carry a full Egyptian visa, not the Sinai-only stamp.

The area sits within Egypt's Red Sea marine-park system, and an Egyptian marine-park fee is bundled into the trip price and paid on board. There is no fixed logged-dive minimum: Advanced Open Water is recommended for the deeper pinnacles and walls, while the caverns and coral gardens suit all levels with good buoyancy and a guide. October-November and May-June bring the calmest crossings; the far-south reefs can close in rough weather, so itineraries often list the most exposed sites as conditions permitting.

A vast scatter of small reefs, coral islands and submerged pinnacles near the Sudanese border, crossing the Tropic of Cancer. Gotas break or near the surface; habilis are pinnacles peaking below it. The terrain ranges across walls, coral towers, tunnels, caverns, overhangs, swim-throughs and sandy bottoms.