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Aquarium
Egypt · reef · intermediate
0–20 mintermediateOWboat entry
Aquarium
A boat drift on the wall just north of El Quseir town: free descent, along the wall, out over the plateau to the drop-off.
Max depth0–20 m
Required levelintermediate
Entry typeboat
Visibilitynot sourced
The dive
This is the El Quseir Aquarium, on the wall about 1.5 km north of the town, and the name is worth pinning down before anything else because it is one of the most reused dive-site names in the Red Sea. If the description you are reading talks about Hurghada, about Abu Ramada, or about a shallow lagoon corner of somebody's house reef, it is not this site. This one is at 26.1163 north, 34.2892 east, and it can only be dived from a boat.
The entry is a free descent, run the way a drift is run rather than down a line. From there the profile is a sequence: a well-overgrown coral wall first, then a coral plateau, and the plateau ends at a drop-off. A diver writing up a week with Extra Divers at the Movenpick, who did it twice by speedboat, describes going down to about 20 m and drifting along with the current past the coral, and saw dolphins there on one of the two. Twenty metres is the working depth in that account rather than the floor of the site; nobody publishes how deep the drop-off goes.
Aquarium is the northernmost of a short line of boat entries on the same piece of wall, and they are easy to confuse. Anemone Garden sits 500 m south and is the one with El Quseir's largest anemone colony on top of its coral blocks; Ras El Quseir is 1 km south with big blocks and seagrass on the sand; El Mina, another drift entry, is 1.1 km south at the harbour. If you are choosing between them, the distinction is that Aquarium is the wall-and-plateau one and Anemone Garden is the anemone one.
For the animals, the submitting centre's list is turtles, triggerfish, dolphins, moray eels, lionfish, scorpionfish and surgeonfish over a coral garden. The OBIS record for the pin is thin, ten single occurrences, but it is consistent: a devil firefish, an orbicular batfish, a yellowbar angelfish, a crown butterflyfish, a sling-jaw wrasse, a hooded cuttlefish and a nudibranch. We have not set a visibility or a temperature, because nobody publishes one for this site and no SeaLog diver has logged it.
- Well-overgrown coral wall straight off the entry
- Coral plateau running out to a drop-off
- Dolphins reported here by at least one diver on a speedboat trip from the Movenpick
- A short speedboat hop rather than a full-day excursion
Please note before you go
- Free descent into moving water, with no line and no bottom reference on entry
- Boat-dependent site with no shore exit, so a missed pickup point matters
- The plateau ends at a drop-off whose depth nobody publishes
Access & rules
Mandatory requirementsGetting there
Boat only. Extra Divers at the Movenpick Resort El Quseir runs two speedboats on half-day trips and reaches around thirty sites spread over El Quseir, Marsa Alam and South Safaga, and Aquarium is one of the near ones rather than a full-day run. The same base gates its demanding sites explicitly, requiring 50 logged dives and Advanced Open Water for Elphinstone and 25 dives and Advanced for the Salem Express; Aquarium carries no such condition, which is itself a useful signal about how it is rated. Nitrox is included at no extra cost for certified nitrox divers. There is no shore route to this site.
Operator
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Season
No source gives Aquarium a season and we have left the best months empty. The base that runs it works speedboat half-days year round; what closes the site is wind, which stops the speedboats, rather than the month on the calendar.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentmoderate
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth range0–20 m
Environmentreef
Coralnot sourced
Crowdsquiet
A boat drop on an exposed piece of coast, worked with the current rather than against it. Roughly 20 m is the depth the one first-hand account describes, along the wall and then across the plateau. No source publishes a typical visibility or water temperature for this site and we have no logged dives here, so neither is set.
On current: The site is run as a drift. The one first-hand account we found describes descending to about 20 m and going along with the current past the coral, and the centre-submitted listing describes the entry itself as being done as for a drift dive, with a free descent rather than a line to follow down. That makes buoyancy on entry the skill that matters here more than depth. No source publishes a current strength, so moderate is inferred from how the dive is run rather than measured.
Questions & answers
Which Aquarium is this?
The El Quseir one, on the wall roughly 1.5 km north of the town at 26.1163 north, 34.2892 east. Aquarium is one of the most reused dive-site names in the Red Sea, so check the coordinates before you match a description to it. If what you are reading mentions Hurghada, Abu Ramada, or a shallow corner of a resort house reef, it is a different site with the same name.
How deep is Aquarium at El Quseir?
About 20 m is the working depth, and that is not the same as the bottom. The only first-hand account we found describes descending to roughly 20 m and drifting along the coral from there. The site's own description runs wall, then coral plateau, then a drop-off, and nobody publishes how deep the drop-off goes, so we have set 20 m as what the dive is actually worked at.
How do you get to Aquarium?
By boat, and only by boat. It is reached by speedboat as part of the half-day trips run out of El Quseir, most commonly from the base at the Movenpick Resort, which keeps two speedboats for exactly this. The site is one of the near ones rather than a full-day excursion. There is no shore route to it.
Is Aquarium suitable for beginners?
It is not gated the way the demanding sites on this coast are. The base that runs it requires 50 logged dives and Advanced Open Water for Elphinstone and 25 dives for the Salem Express, and attaches no such condition here. What it does ask for is a free descent into moving water at the start, without a line, so it suits a diver whose buoyancy is settled more than a brand-new one.
What will I see at Aquarium?
The submitting centre lists turtles, triggerfish, dolphins, moray eels, lionfish, scorpionfish and surgeonfish over a coral garden, and one diver did see dolphins on a speedboat trip here. The OBIS record for the pin is thin but consistent with that: a devil firefish, an orbicular batfish, a yellowbar angelfish, a crown butterflyfish, a sling-jaw wrasse, a hooded cuttlefish and a nudibranch, each from a single occurrence.
Can you snorkel at Aquarium?
No. There is no shore access, the entry is a free descent into a drift from a boat, and the structure that makes the dive is the wall and the plateau below it. Snorkellers on this coast are far better served by the resort house reefs around El Quadim and the town, which are entered from the beach.
How is Aquarium different from Anemone Garden next door?
They are 500 m apart on the same wall and get mixed up constantly. Anemone Garden is entered from a speedboat with a descent at a buoy, and its point is the coral blocks carrying what is described as El Quseir's largest anemone colony on top. Aquarium is the free-descent drift along the wall, over the plateau, to the drop-off. Ras El Quseir and El Mina are two more entries on the same line, another kilometre south.
Is there current at Aquarium?
Yes, and the dive is planned around it rather than against it. Both the site description and the one first-hand report treat it as a drift: you go in as you would for a drift, descend free, and travel with the water along the wall. No source publishes a strength, so we have called it moderate on the basis of how the dive is run rather than from a measurement.
Life recorded at Aquarium
10 species within 1.5 km · OBISFromia ghardaqanarare · 1 records
Epibulus insidiatorrare · 1 records
Glossodoris hikuerensisrare · 1 records
Paracirrhites forsterirare · 1 records
Platax orbicularisrare · 1 records
Pomacanthus maculosusrare · 1 records
All 10 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Fromia ghardaqana | rare | 1 |
| Epibulus insidiator | rare | 1 |
| Glossodoris hikuerensis | rare | 1 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 1 |
| Platax orbicularis | rare | 1 |
| Pomacanthus maculosus | rare | 1 |
| Rhombosepion prashadi | rare | 1 |
| Amblygobius albimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 1 |
Nearby sites in El Quseir
Explore all sitesAnemone Garden0.5 km
El QuseirA plateau at about 20 m off Ras El Quseir carrying one continuous field of anemones, which is why guides call it Nemo City.
Ras El Quseir1.0 km
El QuseirThe headland below El Quseir's Ottoman fort - a name covering several dives, and thin on published detail.
El Mina1.1 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 Sukan4.0 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 South6.1 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 Quadim6.2 km
El QuseirA capped, walk-in house reef in a protected bay: 5 m of reef top, then a wall.
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