SeaLogEgypt · reef
A long jetty in Makadi Bay that drops you straight onto the reef edge at 5 to 6 m, then a gently sloping wall you follow north or south.
Grand Coral is a jetty-entry house reef in Makadi Bay, on the coast about 30 km south of Hurghada. Scuba World Divers, whose Makadi base is at Madinat Makadi, describe the site as defined by its long jetty: you walk out over the reef, kit up on the platform at the end, and take a giant stride that puts you directly over the reef edge in 5 to 6 m of water, with no surface swim at either end. From there the dive is a choice of direction, north or south along a gently sloping wall, to a maximum of about 18 m.
What the operator lists on the reef is ordinary Makadi fauna rather than anything unusual: turtles, clownfish, pufferfish, flutefish and red pipefish in the data box, and parrotfish and moray eels in crevices in the description. The same page argues the site's value is access rather than spectacle. Because the jetty removes the reef-flat crossing, it is used for try-dives and course work, for divers with limited mobility, for snorkellers, and for the sort of unplanned late-afternoon or night dive that a boat schedule rules out.
One thing we could not settle. Our catalogue carries a separate pin, Grand Makadi house reef, about 570 m from this one, and The Grand Makadi Hotel on the north side of Makadi Bay does have a long jetty out to the same fringing reef. Scuba World Divers name their other Makadi shore sites after the resorts they belong to, Fort Arabesque and Royal Azur, but their Grand Coral page names no resort, and a snorkelling guide to the northern Makadi reef lists the hotels along it without a Grand Coral among them. We have not found a source that says these two names are one jetty, and we have not found one that says they are two. Treat the pair as unresolved.
Entered on foot from a resort jetty in Makadi Bay, about 30 km south of Hurghada, kitting up on a platform at the jetty head. Scuba World Divers run it from their Madinat Makadi base as a house-reef dive; their page does not name the resort the jetty belongs to.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
The operator describes calm conditions and clear water, with the reef edge visible from the jetty on the walk out. Neither the visibility nor the seasonal pattern is quantified for this site specifically. Scuba World Divers' Makadi Bay pages quote a water temperature of 29 C with a shorty recommended at the time we read them.
On current: The operator describes the conditions here as calm and uses the site for try-dives and training, which is the strongest statement about current we have. Note that the same page contradicts itself on difficulty: its data box labels the site Advanced while the text calls it suitable for absolutely everyone, including young divers and people with limited mobility. We have left difficulty unset rather than pick one.
Scuba World Divers give the site a depth of 18 m. The giant stride from the jetty puts you on the reef edge in 5 to 6 m, and the wall then slopes away gently as you follow it north or south. Most of the dive is spent well above the maximum.
You walk out along the jetty over the reef, kit up on the platform at the end, and take a giant stride straight over the reef edge. That is the whole point of the site: there is no long surface swim out and none back, which is why it is used for training and for divers with limited mobility.
The operator's own page is contradictory. Its data box labels the site Advanced, while the text calls it suitable for absolutely everyone including young divers, and describes it as their premier location for try-dives and course work. On the strength of the description we would call it an easy dive, but ask the centre before booking a first dive here.
Yes. Scuba World Divers name snorkellers specifically as people the long jetty is designed for, because it puts you at the reef drop-off rather than leaving you to swim across a shallow reef flat to find it. The reef edge is visible from the jetty on the walk out.
The operator lists turtles, clownfish, pufferfish, flutefish and red pipefish for the site, and adds parrotfish and moray eels tucked into crevices in its description of the dive. It is ordinary Makadi Bay reef fauna on a healthy sloping wall rather than a big-animal site.
We could not establish it either way, and we would rather say so than guess. The two sit about 570 m apart on the same stretch of Makadi Bay reef, and The Grand Makadi Hotel does have a long jetty out to it. But the operator page for Grand Coral names no resort, and a snorkelling guide to the northern Makadi reef lists the hotels along it without a Grand Coral among them.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | occasional | 48 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | occasional | 47 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | occasional | 43 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | occasional | 40 |
| Chaetodon auriga | occasional | 37 |
| Scarus niger | occasional | 36 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 36 |
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 36 |
| Naso unicornis | occasional | 36 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | occasional | 36 |
| Acanthurus sohal | occasional | 35 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | occasional | 35 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | occasional | 34 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | occasional | 33 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 32 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | occasional | 31 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | occasional | 29 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 28 |
| Arothron hispidus | occasional | 28 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | occasional | 28 |
| Fistularia commersonii | occasional | 28 |
| Pterois miles | occasional | 28 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 26 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | occasional | 26 |
| Lethrinus nebulosus | occasional | 26 |
| Ostracion cubicum | occasional | 24 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | occasional | 24 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | occasional | 24 |
| Epibulus insidiator | occasional | 23 |
| Acanthurus nigrofuscus | occasional | 23 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | occasional | 22 |
| Tridacna maxima | occasional | 22 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | occasional | 22 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | occasional | 22 |
| Parapercis hexophtalma | occasional | 22 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | occasional | 21 |
| Cheilinus abudjubbe | occasional | 21 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | occasional | 21 |
| Hemigymnus melapterus | occasional | 19 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | occasional | 19 |
| Cheilinus quinquecinctus | occasional | 19 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | occasional | 17 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | occasional | 17 |
| Balistapus undulatus | occasional | 17 |
| Naso elegans | occasional | 17 |
| Neoniphon sammara | occasional | 17 |
| Dascyllus trimaculatus | occasional | 17 |
| Hemigymnus sexfasciatus | occasional | 16 |
| Scarus fuscopurpureus | occasional | 16 |
| Coris aygula | occasional | 16 |
| Chlorurus gibbus | occasional | 16 |
| Diodon hystrix | occasional | 15 |
| Siganus luridus | occasional | 15 |
| Pseudobalistes fuscus | occasional | 15 |
| Labroides dimidiatus | occasional | 14 |
| Caesio striata | occasional | 14 |
| Corythoichthys flavofasciatus | occasional | 14 |
| Octopus cyanea | occasional | 13 |
| Myripristis murdjan | occasional | 13 |
| Plectorhinchus gaterinus | occasional | 13 |
The northern end of the Makadi Bay fringing reef, entered off the resort jetty because the reef flat here is too shallow to wade across.
The hotel house-reef entry at the Royal Azur end of Makadi Bay: sandy walk-in, a short swim, then a fringing wall to about 15 m.
The house reef in front of the Fort Arabesque at the north end of Makadi Bay: walk-in over a 40 m sand flat, coral garden at 13-20 m, then a wall that keeps going to 80 m.
One named stretch of the mile-long fringing reef along Makadi Bay's north shore, on the Grand Makadi frontage, worked one-way toward Gota Abu Makadi.
The erg field on the south side of Abu Hashish: two big coral blocks with a scatter of smaller ones around them, worked down to about 30 m.
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