An overview of the upcoming IDC courses in Sharm. A PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) is divided in two parts. The first portion is the Assistant Instructor (AI) course followed by the Open Water Scuba Instructor program, both conducted by a PADI Course Director, concluding with a two days Instructor Examination (IE) by PADI Evaluators. read more »

White Knight is a small bay bordered by a rather well developed reef with a large crevice that opens onto a sandy plateau from 6 to 18 meters deep. Here there is a mooring point (shamandura) near a colony of Garden eels (Gorgasia sillneri). On the south-western side of the bay, at a depth of 8 meters, is a beautiful canyon with a sandy floor that descends to a depth of 38 meters. The eastern side of this canyon is composed of two hard coral buttresses on which you will see a large Acropore formation and serpentine Salad coral (Turbinaria mesenterina). read more »

Ras Umm Sid is the name of the promontory with a high lighthouse that marks the beginning of the Strait of Tiran on the western coast. The diving site, easily accessible by land, is immediately east of the lighthouse, opposite the famous Italian restaurant El-Fanar and the African Divers centre. It is renowned for the extraordinary proliferation of gorgonians (Subergorgia hicksoni) that create a veritable forest here, the most beautiful in all the northern Red Sea. read more »

This site lies immediately south of Amphoras and its topographical conformation is quite similar: a slope with an average incline of 30° that runs at a depth of 9-25 meters and on which some coral pinnacles stand. The classic dive is a drift dive one both northwards and southwards, depending on the direction of the current - even though the latter is more frequent. read more »

Tower is a spectacular diving site characterized by a deep canyon whose walls descend vertically for over 120 meters. It is accessible from the land, at the Tower Club tourist village. The classic dive begins at the small beach in the bay by the large fossil coral tower the site was named after. Diving from a boat is made easy because of a 'shamandura' (mooring point). If you dive from the shore, after having swum past the reef ledge that borders the bay and extends for a few dozen meters, you will find yourself over the deep canyon, with its crystal-clear waters. read more »

This site lies in the middle of a large bay between Ras Umm Sid and Ras Katy that is bordered by a tall cliff of fossil coral on which two large tourist villages have been built - Farana King Snefru and Reef Oasis. On a vast sandy plateau at a depth of 6-24 meters there are three coral pillars that resemble the columns of an ancient temple, hence the name given to this site by the first divers in the early 1970s. read more »

This site is immediately northeast of the much better-known and more popular Tower, on a level with a small promontory jutting into the sea, on which four large tourist villages have been built: the Tower Club, Sharm Club and, behind these two, the New Tower Club and Club Reef. You can dive directly from the Tower Club area, which can be reached by taking the paved road that begins a short way from the Mobile gasoline station between Naama Bay and Sharm el-Sheikh. read more »

Contrary to what one might expect, this bay is not frequented by sharks but only by crowds of tourists attracted by the lovely sand beach that borders the entire bay. It seems that the name Shark Bay derives from the fact that local fishermen once came here to unload the sharks they had caught. At the northern part of the bay is the Shark Bay Resort, with a diving centre and a first-rate restaurant featuring fresh fish cooked in the traditional Bedouin manner. The south-western side of the bay is occupied by the Pyramisa Hotel and is open only to hotel guests. read more »

The name of this locality means Christian cape in Arabic. It lies 11 kilo-meters north of Naama Bay and immediately south of Ras Ghamila. Ras Nasrani can also be reached by land: take the road leading to the Baron and Conrad International hotels and go down towards the beautiful white sand beach before a large water tank situated on the promontory to the left of the road. However, the classic dive is usually made from boats, either drift dives or circling loop dives. The diving is done from a small sandy plateau that begins at a depth of about 6 meters, where a sand flow originates. read more »

The name Ras Ghamila, which is not on official maps, is used by divers to indicate the tongue of the reef that juts out eastwards and on which is the green beacon that marks the western end of the Strait of Tiran. All the ships that come down from the ports of Aqaba and Eilat must pass by this beacon as well as the red and white one on Gordon Reef. The madreporic reef of Ras Ghamila separates a vast and rather shallow sandy lagoon from the sea and is crossed over by a small natural canal that is sometimes used by local fishermen. read more »