Fort Arabesque Makadi bay

The dive

Fort Arabesque is the fringing reef in front of the Fort Arabesque Resort at the northern end of Makadi Bay, roughly 40 km south of Hurghada. It is one of a run of near-identical hotel house reefs along the same shore — the Grand Makadi reef is 300 m away, the Old House Reef and Shab Tag both about 400 m — and what distinguishes this pin is the access rather than the geology. IDive, the PADI centre inside the resort, runs beach and boat dives on it daily at 09:00, 11:00 and 15:00 from a private wharf 20 m from the centre.

Two dive centres describe the same reef differently because they arrive differently. Scuba World Divers, who walk in, give a sandy entry, shallow calm water and a gently sloping reef wall you follow either north or south, and use it as their first-dive and refresher site. Extra Fun Divers, who come by boat from further along the bay in about ten minutes, call it a drift along a drop-off that falls to 80 m with the main coral garden between 13 and 20 m, and grade it medium rather than beginner. Regaldive puts the main house reef at around 15 m and the interesting ground between 15 and 30 m. All three are describing the same wall from different starting points.

Above the drop-off, the shallow flat is a serious snorkel in its own right. Snorkeling Report measures the flat at about 40 m wide, with dozens of small reefs scattered on sand behind it; the reef tops sit just under the surface and each mini-reef drops to 2-6 m. The Makadi Móló jetty at the northern limit of the resort area opens 10:00 to 16:00 and puts you straight onto that ground, and the same page describes drift snorkelling along the northern fringing reef with the drop-off on your right.

The life is standard Red Sea fringing-reef stock with a few things worth waiting for. OBIS records within 1.5 km of the pin are dominated by ringed and purple tangs, Rueppell's wrasse, four parrotfishes, threadfin, diagonal and bluecheek butterflyfish, masked puffer, twoband anemonefish, royal angelfish, yellow boxfish and small giant clams. Regaldive adds eagle rays, whiptail rays, turtles and a recorded sighting of a bowmouth guitarfish; both dive centres list eagle rays and squid, and Scuba World Divers name moray eels, pufferfish and the occasional octopus.

• Walk-in shore dive with no boat needed, run three times a day by the on-site PADI centre
• Coral garden between roughly 13 and 20 m, with the main house reef around 15 m
• A 40 m shallow flat and scattered mini-reefs that make it a genuine snorkelling site as well
• Drop-off past the reef edge that carries on to about 80 m
• Eagle rays, whiptail rays and turtles reported, plus a recorded bowmouth guitarfish

Conditions

A sheltered hotel-beach reef: sand entry, a shallow flat, scattered coral heads and then a slope down through the coral garden at 13-20 m to a drop-off. Inside is calm; the reef edge is dived as a drift. No source publishes a visibility figure for this reef, so there is no number here we would stand behind.

On current: The sheltered part and the exposed part behave differently and the sources reflect that. Scuba World Divers, describing the walk-in, call it shallow calm water. Extra Fun Divers, arriving by boat at the outer reef, describe a drift along the drop-off and grade the dive medium rather than beginner. Plan the inside as a swim and the reef edge as a drift, and remember the wall does not stop at recreational depth: both boat operators put it at 80 m.

Dives & underwater footage