Mashraba

Two lines lead in from the beach. One crosses the seagrass before the Wadi bridge and passes the statues park, where sculpted figures, a donkey among them, stand in the shallows as an artificial reef and divers report seahorses and anemonefish. The other runs straight over the sandy slope onto the reef towards Roman's Rock. The reef lies off the Mashraba quarter, at the southern end of Dahab bay, and several of the dive centres around it use it as their house reef. Stargazers lie buried in the sand near the entrance at about 4 m.

Roman's Rock is a coral pinnacle that tops out around 18 m, with glassfish and anthias hanging around it. From there the usual route heads south over coral formations to table corals near 20 m and a gorgonian fan, turns at a second pinnacle swarming with the same fish about half an hour in, and returns along the shallow reef and the seagrass. Divers certified for depth add a swim-through between pinnacles. A drift variant starts at Bannerfish Bay and finishes at Mashraba, and one house-reef operator runs seven named profiles from this entry, so repeat dives differ.

Roman's Rock is the centre of gravity: a pinnacle thick with glassfish and anthias that most routes are built around. Around it the dive changes character within a single outing, from seagrass and a statues park to coral at the rock and, for those qualified, a passage at depth. Divers who know the reef call it overlooked, and one operator likens the shallow seagrass and rubble to muck diving, the nearest Dahab has.

The rock rewards slow looking. On a June 2025 night dive a marine biologist counted dozens of the nudibranch Phyllodesmium crypticum on the Xenia soft coral there, and logged a Polybranchia orientalis in the seagrass that was described as very rare in the Red Sea.

After dark the site is often empty, and operators recommend it for night dives. Cuttlefish, squid, Spanish dancers, octopus and crabs are listed, and the June 2025 dive added sea hares, yellowhead and undulated morays and a ringed snake eel.

Stonefish sit among the statues and in the rubble, so keep your trim level over that ground. The resident turtles are most active at dawn, and at least one operator runs dawn dives for them.

Every few years rain in the wadi sends a flash flood that washes sediment into the bay at the entry, and the corals recover afterwards.