SeaLog
Getting there
Boat only. Dive centres in and around El Quseir reach it by speedboat as part of half-day trips along the Ras El Quseir headland, descending on a buoy rather than a shot line. There is no shore access and nothing on site.
Anemone Garden
Egypt · reef
0–20 mboat entry
Anemone Garden
A plateau at about 20 m off Ras El Quseir carrying one continuous field of anemones, which is why guides call it Nemo City.
Max depth0–20 m
Required levelnot sourced
Entry typeboat
Visibilitynot sourced
The dive
Anemone Garden is a speedboat stop on the Ras El Quseir headland, run as a half-day trip by the dive centres based around El Quseir. The one feature it is dived for is a plateau lying at roughly 20 m that carries a single large, continuous formation of anemones with a lot of anemonefish living in it; guides call the spot Nemo City for that reason. Turtles are reported here as well. That is genuinely the whole of what is documented about the site, and it is worth saying so rather than inflating it.
Be careful with this pin. It sits inside a tight cluster of catalogue entries on the same headland: Ras Qusier 440 m away, Aquarium 490 m, Ras El Quseir 500 m and El Mina 660 m. Aquarium next door is dived as a drift at about 20 m past coral landscape. El Mina is also sold on an anemone garden, but that claim traces only to the dive-spot directory this catalogue was imported from; we could not find it on any dive centre's own pages, so it is recorded here as unverified rather than as a fact about either site. In other words, at least two entries in this cluster are sold on the same anemone field, and we cannot confirm from the sources whether they are two ends of one dive or two separate stops.
Our own occurrence records for this pin match a plateau of coral blocks sitting on sand rather than a wall: the recorded species skew heavily to small sand and rubble dwellers, with Steinitz' goby and silverspot shrimpgoby in their burrows, a marbled snake eel, lizardfish, Red Sea mimic blenny and orchid dottyback, alongside reef fish like blue-green chromis, sea goldies, bluecheek butterflyfish, blackside hawkfish, humpnose big-eye bream and lionfish. If you dive here, dive it slowly and low over the sand between the blocks; that is where the interest is.
- A single continuous anemone formation on a plateau at about 20 m
- Large numbers of anemonefish, hence the Nemo City nickname
- Turtles reported
- Sand-and-block ground with shrimpgobies, snake eels and blennies
Please note before you go
- A 20 m plateau entered by negative descent on a buoy leaves little margin for a slow start
- Anemones sting and their fish defend them; this is a look-only, hands-off site by its nature
Access & rules
Mandatory requirementsOperator
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Rules and permits
The Great Fringing Reef of the Egyptian Red Sea, which includes the mainland fringing reefs of the Red Sea Governorate, was declared a marine nature reserve by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 4419 of 6 December 2025. The boundary coordinates were not published with the announcements we read, so whether this headland falls inside them is unconfirmed.
Season
March to May and October to November are the settled months on this coast, when the wind stays light enough that small speedboats run reliably and visibility is at its best. That matters for a site like this one, which is reached by a small boat rather than a day boat and is the sort of trip that gets swapped for a shore dive when the northwesterly gets up.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentnot sourced
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth range0–20 m
Environmentreef
Coralnot sourced
Crowdsquiet
A short speedboat run from El Quseir to a buoy on the headland, then a descent onto a plateau at about 20 m. We have no sourced visibility or temperature figures for this site specifically; water on this coast runs roughly 21 C in February to 29 C in August.
On current: We found no sourced description of current at Anemone Garden itself. The neighbouring Aquarium, 490 m away, is dived as a drift at about the same depth, so the headland does carry flow on at least some sites, but that is an inference about the area rather than a measurement here. Ask for the briefing.
Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov
Questions & answers
What is there to see at Anemone Garden?
One thing, done well: a plateau at about 20 m carrying a large continuous formation of anemones with a lot of anemonefish living in them, which is why guides nickname it Nemo City. Turtles are reported here too. Between the blocks the ground is sand, and the species records from this pin are dominated by small sand dwellers such as shrimpgobies, lizardfish, a marbled snake eel and blennies.
How deep is Anemone Garden?
The anemone plateau lies at roughly 20 m, which is the only depth figure any source gives for this site. We have no sourced figure for the shallow end of the reef or for how far the sand drops beyond the blocks, so plan the dive from your guide's briefing rather than from a published profile.
How do you get to Anemone Garden?
By boat only. Dive centres around El Quseir run it as a speedboat stop on the Ras El Quseir headland, descending on a buoy rather than a fixed line. There is no shore access and no facilities on site, so it is a half-day trip out of a centre rather than something you can reach independently.
Can you snorkel Anemone Garden?
No. The feature that gives the site its name sits at about 20 m, and the site is a boat stop with a buoy descent in open water. There is nothing within snorkelling range and no shore to work from. For snorkelling around El Quseir you want a sheltered house-reef bay instead.
Is Anemone Garden the same site as El Mina or Aquarium?
Possibly overlapping, and the sources do not settle it. Anemone Garden, Aquarium, Ras El Quseir, Ras Qusier and El Mina are all catalogued within about 700 m of each other on the same headland, and at least two of them are described in operator listings in terms of the same anemone field on coral blocks. Treat this cluster as one stretch of reef divided into stops rather than as five independent sites.
Is there current at Anemone Garden?
We found no sourced answer for this specific site, so we are not going to guess one. What is documented is that Aquarium, less than 500 m away on the same headland, is dived as a drift at around the same depth, so the headland clearly carries flow on some sites and some days. Take the briefing seriously and carry a marker buoy.
When is the best time to dive Anemone Garden?
March to May and October to November. Because this is reached by small speedboat rather than a day boat, wind matters more than usual: the settled spring and autumn months are when the trip actually runs and when visibility on this coast is at its best. Water sits roughly between 21 C in February and 29 C in August.
How reliable is this page?
Less than most. Only one independent published account of Anemone Garden turned up in research, a trip report from a diver at an El Quseir centre, with the rest of the mentions tracing back to a single dive-site directory entry. We have published the little that is actually sourced and flagged the rest as unknown rather than filling the gaps.
Life recorded at Anemone Garden
60 species within 1.5 km · OBISTaeniura lymmarare · 1 recordsGymnothorax javanicusrare · 1 records
Haliophis guttatusrare · 3 records
Monotaxis grandoculisrare · 3 records
Paracirrhites forsterirare · 3 records
Myripristis murdjanrare · 2 records
All 60 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Haliophis guttatus | rare | 3 |
| Monotaxis grandoculis | rare | 3 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 3 |
| Myripristis murdjan | rare | 2 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | rare | 2 |
| Amblyeleotris steinitzi | rare | 2 |
| Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos | rare | 2 |
| Pomacentrus trichrourus | rare | 2 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | rare | 2 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 2 |
| Siganus luridus | rare | 2 |
| Gnatholepis caudimaculata | rare | 2 |
| Ctenogobiops crocineus | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | rare | 2 |
| Ecsenius gravieri | rare | 2 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | rare | 1 |
| Mulloidichthys vanicolensis | rare | 1 |
| Pseudochromis fridmani | rare | 1 |
| Synodus dermatogenys | rare | 1 |
| Synodus variegatus | rare | 1 |
| Taeniura lymma | rare | 1 |
| Tridacna maxima | rare | 1 |
| Tripneustes gratilla | rare | 1 |
| Amblygobius nocturnus | rare | 1 |
| Blenniella periophthalmus | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon auriga | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | rare | 1 |
| Chrysiptera unimaculata | rare | 1 |
| Cryptocentrus caeruleopunctatus | rare | 1 |
| Epibulus insidiator | rare | 1 |
| Neoglyphidodon melas | rare | 1 |
| Neopomacentrus miryae | rare | 1 |
| Petroscirtes mitratus | rare | 1 |
| Plagiotremus tapeinosoma | rare | 1 |
| Platax orbicularis | rare | 1 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | rare | 1 |
| Stegastes nigricans | rare | 1 |
| Amblygobius albimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Bodianus anthioides | rare | 1 |
| Chromis viridis | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Eviota guttata | rare | 1 |
| Malacanthus latovittatus | rare | 1 |
| Heniochus intermedius | rare | 1 |
| Conus tessulatus | rare | 1 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | rare | 1 |
| Pseudodax moluccanus | rare | 1 |
| Fromia ghardaqana | rare | 1 |
| Mauritia arabica | rare | 1 |
| Astroboa nuda | rare | 1 |
| Callechelys marmorata | rare | 1 |
| Callyspongia crassa | rare | 1 |
| Chromis weberi | rare | 1 |
| Conus catus | rare | 1 |
| Conus nussatella | rare | 1 |
| Cypraea pantherina | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus marginatus | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus trimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | rare | 1 |
| Lutjanus ehrenbergii | rare | 1 |
Nearby sites in El Quseir
Explore all sitesAquarium0.5 km
El QuseirA boat drift on the wall just north of El Quseir town: free descent, along the wall, out over the plateau to the drop-off.
Ras El Quseir0.5 km
El QuseirThe headland below El Quseir's Ottoman fort - a name covering several dives, and thin on published detail.
El Mina0.7 km
El QuseirA five-minute speedboat hop off El Quseir's harbour, dived for a seagrass patch among the coral rather than for any one formation.
Oma Sukan4.5 km
El QuseirA zodiac drift ten minutes north of El Quseir harbour: down a wall to 18 m, then south into a field of pinnacles.
El Quadim South6.5 km
El QuseirThe southern end of the El Quadim Bay house reef at El Quseir, one of three catalogue pins on the same sheltered wadi-mouth bay.
El Quadim6.6 km
El QuseirA capped, walk-in house reef in a protected bay: 5 m of reef top, then a wall.
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