Near Garden

Near Garden is the closest dive site to the jetty in Sharm el Sheikh, making it convenient for divers to join the afternoon dive boat. It is located on the southern headland of Middle Garden or the northern headland of Naama Bay. This site can be done as a mooring dive but is more popular as a semi-drift dive. Divers enter near several pinnacles that form a ridge down the sharp coral slope. From there, they can head north along the steep reef until it flattens out in Middle Garden. If the dive is planned as a semi-drift, divers can explore the fringing reef with its small inlets during the last minutes of the dive. The reef wall at Near Garden descends to 8-10 meters and then slopes to the drop off at 18-20 meters. The dive is filled with pinnacles, including a magnificent red anemone and a glassfish pinnacle. Other marine life found at this site includes nudibranch, shrimps, blennies, Christmas tree worms, and banded pipefish. Towards the corner of the dive site, the drop off ridge stretches into a flat bottom with large fan corals at about 22 meters. The corner of Near Garden and the beginning of the bay is marked by a row of pinnacles, where the current is usually strongest and the soft corals are healthy and colorful. In the summer months, mantas can sometimes be spotted in the shallows of this site.