Diving in The Brothers

Two steep-sided rock cones about a kilometre apart rise from seabed deeper than 700 metres, roughly 60 to 70 km off the Egyptian coast at El Quseir, with walls that drop past 60 metres and no shallow shelf to fall back on. Every dive runs from a liveaboard and its zodiacs, most often on the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone safari known as BDE or on a dedicated Brothers route.

Big Brother, the larger island, carries a lighthouse completed in 1883 and still crewed by the Egyptian Navy, and two wrecks grown into its north wall. The steamer Numidia, lost in 1901, lies broken between about 8 and 80 metres with its stern beyond recreational limits, and the supply vessel Aida, which sank in 1957 carrying lighthouse staff, rests around 25 to 60 metres. A south plateau brings threshers to a cleaning station at dawn. Little Brother, the smaller and more exposed island a kilometre south, is one wall to circle, draped in soft coral, with a north plateau where hammerheads, grey reef and silvertip sharks work the blue.

Oceanic whitetips are the draw. They are present year-round, usually out in the blue off the walls, and encounters peak in October and November. The islands are an Important Shark and Ray Area on the strength of that one Critically Endangered species alone; hammerheads, threshers and grey reef sharks are present but are not the basis.1 Scalloped hammerheads are seasonal, May to October, with June to August the most consistent. The islands are a marine protectorate managed by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, and the underwater mood is serious: the current usually runs north to south in a straight line, downwellings that push divers deeper have been reported at Little Brother and on Big Brother's walls, and one 2018 trip account counted as many as 16 boats around Big Brother on a peak day.

The crossing sets the rhythm of a Brothers trip: seven to nine hours of open sea from Hurghada, usually sailed overnight to arrive at first light, and it can be rough. Dedicated Brothers itineraries run five to seven nights and the combined BDE or north-and-Brothers routes seven to ten, with Marsa Alam and Port Ghalib the gateways for southern combinations. Only licensed liveaboards hold the permits, the operator arranges them and the cost is included in the trip price, so you choose a boat and a route; nobody sells a day trip.

Operators expect Advanced Open Water and real drift experience in current. The logged-dive minimum quoted varies, from 30 on one operator's itinerary to 50 in guidebook advice, so confirm it with your boat before booking. Nitrox is usually a paid extra and suits the repetitive deep profiles. Night diving is prohibited, and guides and divers report that since 2018 boats leave in the afternoon instead of mooring overnight. Weather decides whether the islands get dived, so itineraries often list them as conditions permitting. October and November are the best window; January and February can bring rough crossings and cancelled Little Brother stops.