Eel Gardens

Eel Gardens is a dive site located north of Lighthouse in Dahab. It can be accessed by the promenade or a small internal road. This site should only be dived in non-windy conditions due to strong surface and underwater currents. To enter Eel Garden, you will need to walk or swim above the reef plate for about 3 minutes, leading to a beautiful 15-meter-long underwater channel. This channel sometimes hosts schools of colorful glassfish. After exiting the channel, dive down the slope and keep the coral to your left as you continue north. Here, you will encounter a garden of eels and pufferfish. Proceed northward, then turn around and follow the reef wall to your right until you reach the entrance channel. Eel Gardens gets its name from the abundance of garden eels that cover the sea floor near the entry point. To reach the entry spot, you will walk over the reef plate and enter a nine-meter canyon, which then opens up into a sandy area with a gradual slope. As you dive along a jutting reef perpendicular to the main reef, you will see the eels waving in the current like synchronized swimmers, disappearing into the sand as you approach. Descend to around 20 meters, where you will find a flat section of reef with coral boulders and table corals. Barracudas can often be seen patrolling this area. On your way back, at around 5 and 10 meters, you will encounter a diverse range of healthy soft and hard corals, and keep an eye out for the rare sea grass ghost pipe-fish.