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Dives in the Egyptian Red SeaThe Red Sea has some of the best diving in the world, including The Brothers whose dives are detailed here. You might also be interested in wreck diving in Northern Egypt or diving in Saudi Arabia. Diving the BrothersThe Brothers, or El Akhawein, are two small islands in the middle (width-ways) of the Red Sea. Big Brother and Little Brother are a 5 minute boat ride apart. The larger Brother is home to a lighthouse manned by the military. Often surrounded by wild currents, the scenary makes for some wonderful dives. Add to this the high likelihood of seeing sharks, and you're guaranteed fantastic experiences. We prefer the Little Brother for sheer decorativeness, but it's a narrow decision. The Brothers are steep-sided cones. They were probably formed by volcanic action caused by the spreading of the Red Sea rift. The Egyptian authorities have acted to protect the Brothers: the islands are periodically closed to divers, and even when open a $5 (US) fee per diver per day is charged (the money going towards protecting the marine environment). At the moment diving is allowed so go whilst you've got the opportunity. 
Getting There Book a place on a liveaboard, generally out of Hurgahda. You can make your way independently to Hurghada and join the boat there, or book a complete package from your own country. For suggestions of companies operating dive boats and complete packages, see the Dive Operators page. The trip from Hurghada to the Brothers takes around 8 hours.
Liveaboard moored off Big Brother When to Go You need good weather to dive the Brothers. It's an exposed spot with no shelter for boats to moor up in. Anchoring is forbidden so mooring is at permanently fixed buoys. In very bad weather these may be swept away. The winds are often weakest during full moon, and if you can stand the heat, the months of June, July and August are the calmest. Sharks increase in number from May.
The Aida II is an Italian ship which was carrying troops one night in 1957 when it hit Big Brother. A large wreck with much intact superstructure, its shallowest point is at 15 m. Located on the Western tip of the island, the current is often strong. It may even diverge over the wreck. So you could hang easily over the mast, but a few metres either side would be battling to stay in one place. Watch the fish over the wreck and make for the ones that aren't moving very quicky. A very good dive indeed with huge shoals of fish generally present. It slopes down the reef, descending to over 45 metres.
There is more wreckage not far north from the Aida. Part of it looks like train carriages, accompanied by large wheels.
A wall of soft corals drops to 40m, where you hit a short plateau. Over the edge of the plateau another wall descends even further. An excellent dive where you might see hammerhead or white tip reef sharks, schools of jacks, big grouper and scores of other fish.
Photo by Tim Nicholson
A very similar dive to the south wall.
Little Brother's reef stretches out to the North East of the island and bottoms out to a sandy bottom at around 47m. A very beautiful dive with and excess of black coral, soft corals and sea fans. The top of the reef is between 2 and 6m from the surface and so there's plenty to see at the end of the dive. UpdatesWe'll soon be adding more maps and photos to this page, so please revisit soon. We hope you found this page useful, but if you're diving a part of the Red Sea not covered here - try one of these diving guide books.
Note: If you buy any book through one of these links, the SCUBA Travel site earns a commission (at no extra cost to yourself). Thank you for making your purchases from here and helping support the development of this site. Your CommentsPlease add your comments on diving in the Red Sea, or anything else on this site. Also, what are your favourite dives of all time? Let us know with the reason why. |
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