Thomas Reef

Overview

Thomas Reef is the smallest of the four reefs in the Straits of Tiran and, for many divers, the most thrilling. A compact submerged pinnacle ringed by sheer walls and draped in some of the healthiest soft coral in the northern Red Sea, it sits in open water where the Gulf of Aqaba squeezes between Tiran Island and the Sinai shore — and that geography funnels in the current that makes Thomas a genuine adrenaline dive. It is a boat dive out of Sharm El Sheikh, usually combined with neighbouring Jackson, Woodhouse and Gordon reefs on a single day boat or a Tiran liveaboard leg.

The Dive

This is a drift dive, and the current calls the shots. The reef drops in walls at its northern and southern tips, with a broad plateau on the south-eastern side sitting around 25m. The classic plan rounds the reef with the flow, hanging in the blue along the eastern wall where the soft corals are densest and the fish action is heaviest. A series of canyons and a famous deep saddle cut the southern side — beautiful, but they bottom out well past recreational limits, so they are the preserve of technical divers and are simply admired from above by everyone else. Keep the wall on your shoulder, watch your depth on the plateau, and let the current do the work.

Thomas has some of the strongest and least predictable current in Tiran, occasionally switching direction mid-dive, so this is an Advanced Open Water site for divers comfortable in moving water. Negative entries and a reef hook earn their place here.

Marine Life

The walls are a riot of colour — branching and soft corals in reds, oranges and purples, worked over by clouds of anthias, butterflyfish and bannerfish. Giant morays sit in the cracks, pufferfish and Napoleon wrasse patrol the plateau, and green turtles graze the shallower coral. The real draw is the pelagic traffic the current brings: white-tip and grey reef sharks cruising the drop-offs, jacks and barracuda balling up in the blue, and the occasional eagle ray sweeping past the wall.

Good to Know

Tiran dives well year-round, with the calmest surface conditions and warmest water from April to November; visibility is typically excellent at 20–30m. Because the reef offers no shelter and the current is unforgiving, dives are run from the boat with a careful current check before entry and a drift plan briefed in advance. If you are newer to drift diving, cut your teeth on calmer Tiran days or on Woodhouse before taking on Thomas at full flow.