SeaLogEgypt · reef
A five-minute speedboat hop off El Quseir's harbour, dived for a seagrass patch among the coral rather than for any one formation.
El Mina is a short speedboat hop from the dive centres on the El Quseir waterfront — the one operator listing we found puts it five minutes out — and the name is Arabic for the harbour, which is what our pin sits off. What that listing documents is a mixed bottom rather than a single feature: soft and hard corals, and a large patch of seagrass where the fish life concentrates. Sea turtles and eagle rays are the animals it names, the maximum depth it gives is 20 m, and entry is off the boat. It calls the site quiet, which given the number of speedboat stops on this headland is worth something.
This pin needs care, and for two separate reasons. The local one first: it sits inside a tight cluster of El Quseir headland entries — 170 m from Ras El Quseir, 660 m from Anemone Garden, 1.1 km from Aquarium — and a dive-spot database describes El Mina as coral blocks carrying the largest anemone garden of El Quseir, which is exactly what Anemone Garden 660 m away is sold on. We could not trace that sentence past the database to any dive centre, and the one operator dive-site map we did read carries El Mina and Anemone Garden as two separate stops. The seagrass is the feature nobody attaches to Anemone Garden, and it is why we have kept this as its own dive rather than merging the two. Treat the anemone claim as unresolved and ask your guide which of the two you are actually going to.
The second reason is the name. There is a much better-known El Mina in the Egyptian Red Sea: a T-43 minesweeper lying on her side off Hurghada in roughly 26 to 33 m, holed at anchor by an air strike, with live ammunition on the seabed around her. That wreck is about 120 km north of this pin and has nothing to do with this reef. If you were looking for the wreck, this is not it.
The occurrence records around this pin are thin — sixty-odd taxa with one to three records each, which is the signature of a single opportunistic survey rather than of a poor reef — and they read as sand-and-rubble ground: Steinitz' goby and silverspot shrimpgoby in their burrows, a marbled snake eel, two lizardfish species, a Red Sea mimic blenny and a piano blenny, with orchid dottyback, sea goldies, bluecheek butterflyfish, batfish and lionfish over the harder patches. Nothing in that list contradicts the seagrass-and-coral description, and nothing in it confirms an anemone field either.
Boat only, from El Quseir. The dive centres on this stretch run speedboats from their own jetties several times a day, in small groups, with most sites on the headland reached in well under half an hour; this one is listed at about five minutes. Ask for it by name, because the same centres also run Anemone Garden, Aquarium and Ras El Quseir off the same headland and the names get used loosely.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
March to May and September to November are the settled windows on the Egyptian Red Sea, with the best visibility and water warm enough to be comfortable without the heat of late summer. Winter brings the northerly wind that limits offshore access; on a five-minute inshore hop like this one that is less of a constraint than it is out on the reefs, but it still decides whether the speedboat runs.
The only account of conditions here calls the water clear and the site quiet. Across this stretch of coast the water runs about 21 to 23 C in winter and up to roughly 30 C at the end of summer, with visibility at its best in spring and autumn. The site is close inshore on a headland, so wind chop and harbour traffic matter more than swell.
On current: Nobody publishes a current figure for El Mina. The one operator listing calls it clear and quiet and tags it, among other things, as a drift, which is consistent with the headland: Aquarium, 1.1 km away on the same stretch, is dived as a drift at about 20 m. That is an inference about the headland, not a measurement here. The only depth figure anywhere is the same listing's 20 m maximum, and it comes with the directory's own warning that the data was supplied by a third party. Take the briefing over this page.
Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov
The only published figure is a 20 m maximum, from a single operator-written listing that the directory carrying it flags as third-party data. No source gives a shallow limit, a visibility figure or a current figure for this site. Plan the dive from your guide's briefing rather than from any number you find online, including ours.
No. The El Mina wreck is a Russian-built T-43 minesweeper off Hurghada, holed at anchor by an air strike and now lying on her side in about 26 m at the bow and 33 m at the stern, with live ammunition scattered on the seabed around her. That site is roughly 120 km north of this pin. This El Mina is a shallow reef-and-seagrass dive off El Quseir's harbour and has no wreck on it.
Probably not, but we cannot prove it either way. A dive-spot database describes El Mina as coral blocks topped by the largest anemone garden of El Quseir, which is the same selling point as Anemone Garden 660 m up the headland, and we could not trace that sentence to any dive centre. The one operator dive-site map we read lists the two as separate stops, and the seagrass patch described at El Mina is not attached to Anemone Garden anywhere. Ask the centre which one the boat is actually going to.
By boat from El Quseir, and it is close: the operator listing calls it a five-minute speedboat ride. The dive centres on this stretch run speedboats from their own jetties several times a day in small groups, with most of the headland sites reached in well under half an hour. There is no shore entry to this pin.
The listing for the site names soft and hard corals, a large seagrass patch with a lot of life in it, and a good chance of sea turtles and eagle rays. Occurrence records around this pin add sand-dwellers: shrimp gobies in their burrows, a marbled snake eel, lizardfish and blennies, with orchid dottyback, sea goldies, bluecheek butterflyfish, batfish and lionfish over the harder ground.
It is not the site for it. The pin is a boat mooring just off a working harbour, and the interest is on the bottom — a seagrass patch under up to 20 m of water — rather than near the surface. The resort house reefs along the El Quseir coast, which run from the beach into shallow coral, are the better answer for snorkelling here.
March to May and September to November give the settled seas and the best visibility on this coast, with water warm enough to be comfortable without the heat of late summer. Winter drops the water to around 21 to 23 C and brings the northerly wind that keeps boats inshore. On a five-minute hop like this one that matters less than it does offshore, but it still decides whether the speedboat goes out.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Haliophis guttatus | rare | 3 |
| Monotaxis grandoculis | rare | 3 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 3 |
| Gnatholepis caudimaculata | rare | 2 |
| Myripristis murdjan | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | rare | 2 |
| Amblyeleotris steinitzi | rare | 2 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | rare | 2 |
| Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos | rare | 2 |
| Ctenogobiops crocineus | rare | 2 |
| Siganus luridus | rare | 2 |
| Ecsenius gravieri | rare | 2 |
| Pomacentrus trichrourus | rare | 2 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 2 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | rare | 2 |
| Callyspongia crassa | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon auriga | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | rare | 1 |
| Chromis viridis | rare | 1 |
| Chromis weberi | rare | 1 |
| Chrysiptera unimaculata | rare | 1 |
| Conus catus | rare | 1 |
| Conus nussatella | rare | 1 |
| Conus tessulatus | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus marginatus | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus trimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Epibulus insidiator | rare | 1 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | rare | 1 |
| Lutjanus ehrenbergii | rare | 1 |
| Malacanthus latovittatus | rare | 1 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | rare | 1 |
| Mulloidichthys vanicolensis | rare | 1 |
| Neoglyphidodon melas | rare | 1 |
| Platax orbicularis | rare | 1 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | rare | 1 |
| Pseudochromis fridmani | rare | 1 |
| Stegastes nigricans | rare | 1 |
| Synodus dermatogenys | rare | 1 |
| Synodus variegatus | rare | 1 |
| Taeniura lymma | rare | 1 |
| Tridacna maxima | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Cypraea pantherina | rare | 1 |
| Neopomacentrus miryae | rare | 1 |
| Pseudodax moluccanus | rare | 1 |
| Tripneustes gratilla | rare | 1 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | rare | 1 |
| Blenniella periophthalmus | rare | 1 |
| Petroscirtes mitratus | rare | 1 |
| Plagiotremus tapeinosoma | rare | 1 |
| Amblygobius nocturnus | rare | 1 |
| Amblygobius albimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Cryptocentrus caeruleopunctatus | rare | 1 |
| Eviota guttata | rare | 1 |
| Heniochus intermedius | rare | 1 |
| Fromia ghardaqana | rare | 1 |
| Mauritia arabica | rare | 1 |
| Astroboa nuda | rare | 1 |
| Bodianus anthioides | rare | 1 |
| Callechelys marmorata | rare | 1 |
The headland below El Quseir's Ottoman fort - a name covering several dives, and thin on published detail.
A plateau at about 20 m off Ras El Quseir carrying one continuous field of anemones, which is why guides call it Nemo City.
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.
A zodiac drift ten minutes north of El Quseir harbour: down a wall to 18 m, then south into a field of pinnacles.
The southern end of the El Quadim Bay house reef at El Quseir, one of three catalogue pins on the same sheltered wadi-mouth bay.
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