Rocky Island

Overview

Rocky Island is the wild, remote tip of Egypt's deep south — a tiny barren rock in the far Foul Bay marine park, ringed by sheer walls that plunge into open ocean and rake in nutrient-rich current. It is one of the country's premier big-animal and pristine-coral sites, dived only by liveaboards on the longest southern itineraries, and it rewards the journey with some of the healthiest reef and most reliable shark action in the Red Sea.

The Dive

Barely 540m across, Rocky offers almost no shelter, and its fringing reef drops away as a steep wall on every side. The richest diving sits in the upper water column: vibrant hard and soft coral blankets the wall from the surface down past 30m, with the reef continuing into the deep blue far below (the wreck of the Maidan lies beyond 90m and is a technical-only feature, not a recreational target). Dives are run as drifts along the wall — typically dropping in on one corner and letting the current sweep you along the coral face, scanning the blue for pelagics, then ascending the wall to a shallow stop. Because the current can flood from unexpected directions and is strongest on the eastern and western sides, the dive plan is set on the day by the guides reading the conditions.

This is an advanced site: strong, shifting current, exposure to open sea, and the temptation of a bottomless wall make it unsuitable for inexperienced divers. Night diving is not permitted. Negative entries and DSMB ascents into the blue are routine.

Marine Life

Rocky's exposure and current make it a magnet for big fish. Grey reef, whitetip and silvertip sharks are common along the walls, hammerheads patrol the deeper blue, and threshers and oceanic whitetips are realistic encounters in season. The coral itself is the other star — among the most intact in Egypt, with dense soft-coral growth, big gorgonians and clouds of anthias. Turtles, napoleon wrasse, tuna, barracuda and large groupers round out a consistently action-packed dive.

Good to Know

Rocky Island is liveaboard-only, reached on Deep South / St John's & Rocky-Zabargad itineraries (typically out of Port Ghalib/Marsa Alam or Hamata), and the long crossing means it is usually combined with neighbouring Zabargad just 5km away. Best conditions and calmest seas run roughly March to November; visibility is usually a superb 25–30m+. Currents here are the real hazard — strong, variable and unforgiving — so it is a site for confident, current-experienced divers travelling with a switched-on crew.