Ras Um Sid

Overview

Ras Um Sid, marked by the El Fanar lighthouse on the headland south of Na'ama Bay, is home to the largest gorgonian forest in Sharm El Sheikh. A steep wall studded with giant fan corals gives way to a coral-covered plateau, and the site mixes easy reef cruising with the genuine possibility of pelagics swept in by current. It is one of Sharm's signature dives and doubles as a popular shore entry beneath the lighthouse.

The Dive

The dive opens on a steep wall that runs from the surface to around 18m, where it flattens into a plateau extending some 50m out to the drop-off. The signature feature is a column of gorgonian fans stacked between roughly 14 and 28m, best appreciated with a slow, buoyancy-controlled pass. Most of the dive stays in the comfortable 12 to 25m range across the plateau and its small soft-coral pinnacles. Current is the wildcard: it tends to whip divers around the corner and can push them out over the plateau, so it is often run as a drift and timed with the tide. The far corner, where currents meet, is where the bigger fish gather.

Marine Life

The gorgonian forest is the headline, but the plateau hides plenty: scorpionfish camouflaged in the coral, batfish hovering in midwater and blue-spotted stingrays resting on the sand. At the current-swept corner expect schooling snappers, barracuda and big Napoleon wrasse. On the sheltered side, one of Sharm's finest coral gardens shelters nudibranchs and devil scorpionfish for the macro-minded.

Good to Know

Diveable year-round with typical visibility of 15 to 25m, though the current can knock that down. The shore entry under the lighthouse is convenient but the current makes an Advanced certification and good drift-diving comfort the realistic baseline. Most operators run it by boat as part of a local-sites day.