Sha'ab Sheer - Coral Paradise

Sha'ab Sheer is a large reef where cruise boats stay for the night, and Coral Paradise is on its west side. At the western tip of the reef complex stands an active lighthouse: a 9 m hourglass-shaped fiberglass tower, yellow with a black band, on a stone pier, showing nine very quick white flashes every 10 seconds. The dive passes through small channels to wide hard coral gardens, with mushroom-shaped blocks and a sheltered area called the "Aquarium". The hard coral garden is colourful, and the small lagoon in the inner area should not be missed.

Besides the hard corals there are seafans, and morays, blue-spotted stingrays and crocodile fish appear; the smaller blocks off the main reef are also worth a visit. Across the Sha'ab Sheer reef as a whole there are Red Sea bannerfish, masked butterflyfish and blue-spotted stingrays; turtles are common and dolphins sometimes appear. Triggerfish, wrasse, parrotfish and surgeonfish also cruise this reef, while emperorfish, bannerfish and sweetlips hang in schools, and barracuda, jackfish, tuna and even white tip sharks appear.

In Safaga diving runs all year; the water tends to be warmest in summer, and the air tends to be most comfortable in spring and autumn, while wind influences which reefs are open in each season.