Sha'ab Maksur

The mooring sits at the southern tip, and the descent drops beside two large rock pillars that rise to 9 m above the plateau and serve as the reference. From there the dive drifts south along the plateau edge, where sharks often patrol, with eyes on the blue. The plateau steps down in two levels, and the turn comes at 40 m. The return crosses back over the plateau and ends in the cave-like openings in the reef top at 8 m, where the safety stop is made. The dive runs about 45 minutes.

The northern tip is a separate dive that starts from a RIB. The current decides the descent: the line is chosen so as not to be carried round to the west side. Sharks are reportedly likelier on the plateau at 30-40 m early in the morning, and the route then drifts south along the east wall with the reef on the right shoulder. The east wall is also dived on its own as a morning RIB drift of about an hour.

The west plateau is the slow dive. It starts at the single block that breaks the surface, where an anemone colony at about 12 m on the north side often carries clownfish eggs. The route then enters the lagoon, 13-16 m deep and 20 m wide, and comes back over the coral garden. Morays, ghost shrimps and torpedo rays live in the lagoon, and a cleaning station draws barracudas.

One offshore reef gives three separate dives from a single mooring: the southern plateau, the northern tip and the east wall. The east wall is covered in growth along the whole reef, and the west plateau holds a lagoon of its own.

In that lagoon lie pieces of an old safari boat that reportedly hit the reef after 14 days in service. The riggings went overboard, the hull was taken to a shipyard, and the reef has grown over what remained. A slow dive over the lagoon floor is the way to see it.

The reef lies on almost the same orientation as Elphinstone, and its currents are said to run much the same for that reason.

The southern plateau is often swept by strong currents and divers can be carried out into open sea, so the plan keeps the reef close. Warm-water bleaching hit the southern Egyptian Red Sea in 2024, after a precursor in 2023, and recovery is patchy from reef to reef, so set expectations for hard-coral cover accordingly.

Mooring is possible only at the southern tip, with room for a few boats, and downward currents can occur anywhere on the reef, so check depth often, along the plateau edges above all.