Marsa Shouna

Marsa Alam · Red Sea Governorate · Egypt

Marsa Shouna is one of those Red Sea dive sites that experienced divers overlook and beginners never forget. This sheltered bay approximately 15 kilometres south of Marsa Alam is protected from wind and current by low desert hills on three sides, creating a natural pool of turquoise water over a reef starting in ankle-deep shallows. There are no dramatic walls, no deep drops, and no punishing currents. What Marsa Shouna offers instead is accessibility and an underwater garden that delivers consistent encounters with the Red Sea's most charismatic residents. I walked in from the shore and was swimming over coral within ten seconds. The reef is packed into a compact area, but the density and health of hard coral coverage is exceptional. Table corals, fire corals, massive Porites heads, and branching Acropora competed for space across a gentle slope from 2 to 15 metres. Anthias swarmed the coral heads in their perpetual orange clouds, and butterflyfish picked at polyps with surgical precision. The turtles arrived quickly. Two green sea turtles were already visible from the surface, gliding over sea grass patches that border the coral zone. Descending to 8 metres, I found a third turtle resting in a sandy clearing, head tucked under a coral overhang, eyes closed. These turtles are habituated to divers and showed no alarm as I settled nearby and watched. Over an hour-long dive never deeper than 15 metres, I counted six individual green turtles, making this one of the most reliable turtle encounters in all of Egypt. The supporting cast was no less engaging. Blue-spotted stingrays shuffled across sandy patches, a crocodilefish lay camouflaged so perfectly that my guide pointed twice before I saw it, and a moray eel shared its crevice with a cleaning shrimp. Marsa Shouna is proof that shallow does not mean boring and that protected bays can harbour ecosystems as rich as any exposed reef wall.