Diving Red Sea

Elphinstone

Elphinstone is a cigar-shaped reef running north-south and over 300 metres in length, located in the southern Red Sea, close to Marsa Alam. It was named after Admiral George Elphinstone, a British naval commander who served in Egypt in the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century. It's healthy marine life and underwater landscapes make it one of Egypt's best diving sites.

The northern and southern tips of Elphinstone have 100m wide plateaus between 20-40m deep, covered with soft corals, huge gorgonians, sponges and sea whips. Diving at the Northern Plateau, it's best to drop in further to the north and drift onto the plateau. Here you'll find crowds of redtooth triggerfish, fluttering in the current. Giant trevally and great barracuda often hunt here and reef sharks are common.

As you swim closer to the shallows you'll join up with the wall covered in gorgonian fans and intricately carved with overhangs and cracks. This majestic underwater tapestry is brightly coloured by purple and orange anthias, angelfish and emperors go about thier daily business, and flutemouths move stealthily through the shallows.

No strangers to Elphinstone's Southern Plateau and frequently spotted are oceanic white tip sharks, seemingly always accompanied by pilot fish. These sharks seem curious of divers and often return for a surprise second look. Oceanic whitetips are rare sightings for divers elsewhere in the world, so this fish, perhaps more than any other, has come to represent what's so special about diving in the Red Sea South.

The Eastern Wall offers awe inspiring wall diving, while strong currents make this a spectacular drift dive. The sheer walls plunge away vertically to invisible depths of more than 100 metres, covered in a rainbow of beautiful soft corals as far as the eye can see. The vibrant fish population features barracuda, schools of jacks, angelfish, snappers, Napoleonfish and large tuna.

The Western Wall is sleep steep and so has more ledges and caverns that attract titan triggerfish, soldierfish and squirrelfish.

Elphinstone Reef Basics: Plateaus, walls and sharks
Depth: 5 - >40m
Visibility: 20 - 35m
Currents: Can be strong
Surface conditions: Generally Calm
Water temperature: 23 - 30°C
Experience level: Intermediate - advanced
Number of dive sites: 4
Diving season: All year round
Distance: 25 km north of Marsa Alam (1½ hrs), 230 km (14 hrs) south-east of Hurghada
Access: Red Sea liveaboards

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