Abu Galawa Soraya

Marsa Alam · Red Sea Governorate · Egypt

Abu Galawa Soraya is the kind of dive site that makes you question whether the Red Sea even needs deep walls and big wrecks when it can produce something this beautiful in 15 metres of water. Part of the Fury Shoal reef system in Egypt's far south, this site combines a photogenic sailboat wreck, a turquoise lagoon of almost absurd beauty, and coral pinnacles alive with tropical fish into a single dive that feels more like fantasy than reality. I entered from the liveaboard tender into the lagoon, where the water was so clear over white sand that the boat seemed to float on air. Coral pinnacles rose from the bottom like underwater mushrooms, their flanks encrusted with hard corals and swarming with anthias in clouds of orange and purple. Butterflyfish paired off on the reef crest, lionfish lurked beneath overhangs, and a crocodilefish lay on the sand so perfectly camouflaged that I swam over it twice before my guide intervened. Swimming toward slightly deeper water, the sailboat wreck came into view like a film set. The small yacht sat upright on sand at 12 metres, its mast still reaching toward the surface, soft corals growing along rigging lines and sponges encrusting the hull. Visibility was easily 30 metres, and I could photograph the entire wreck in a single wide-angle frame. Glassfish had colonized the cabin interior, swirling in silvery tornados each time I peered through the broken windows. A hawksbill turtle appeared from behind the wreck and glided toward a coral bommie. Moray eels occupied at least four separate holes in the reef wall. The maximum depth was just 15 metres, and I surfaced after 65 minutes feeling like I had spent the afternoon inside a travel photograph. Abu Galawa Soraya is shallow, easy, and spectacularly beautiful.