Diving Elphinstone Reef

5 February 2021
The Red Sea has some of the best diving in the world - including the fabulous Elphinstone, in Egypt, whose dives are detailed here. Elphinstone is one of my favourite dive sites.

Elphinstone is 6.5 nautical miles from the shore. You reach it by boat, either a liveaboard or on a day trip from Marsa Alam. It is better to do it from a liveaboard because you get longer on it, and the dive guides generally let you go deeper.

Elphinstone is 300 metres long with sheer sides, and runs from North to South. At the middle it is just 1 m deep, but the walls drop steeply down to the depths. The current here can be very strong, which is good as it means plenty of fish life. The currents are most often north to south, but are variable and can change even during your dive. Visibility is usually around 20 m.

The reef top is one of the few places that you can see Oceanic Whitetip sharks in shallow water (another is the Bahamas). They are curious animals and will come to look at divers. Elphinstone also features many very beautiful corals. If that isn't enough look out for its resident hawksbill turtle and the bottlenose dolphins that might whizz past above your head and hammerhead sharks out in the blue.

The Diving • Elphinstone Liveaboards • Further Reading • Your Comments • Rest of the Red Sea

Diving Elphinstone Reef

Reviews: (5)

"Manta, Hammer Heads, Oceanic White Tip Reef Shark, Napoleon Fish, Sea Turtle "
Anders Delén, 7 February 2019

"All cover of soft coral. hammerhead, grey reef sharks, longimanus sharks, huge napoleon and tuna...50 m gorgonia and 56 cave passing the all the reef....topppp "
Leonardo, Italy, 3 September 2012

"Elphinstone is a fantastic drift dive. Large shoals of tuna and a turtle were the highlight of the dives. Excellent and exhilerating. "
Steve Ivell, 2009

"Great dive but can be frightening in strong current."
Bob Smitherman

"After ten minutes one big manta was coming from east of the reef: spectacular "
Alessandro, Italy

Depth: 42 m

Elphinstone North

Two pinacles are on the north side of Elphinstone, the first at 42 m. You then swim back along a series of plateaus at diminishing depths (see the picture to the right). Look out for sharks, especially Oceanic White Tips which are somethimes seen here along with their pilot fish. Other things to see inlcude barracuda, emperor angel fish, zebra angel fish, hoards of anthias, beautiful soft corals, big groupers, giant morays and shoals of suez fusiliers.

"We dived the north in early July and at 34 m saw a 3.5m Tiger shark! Breath taking! "
Martyn Slater, 2009

Tiger shark by Albert Kok, CC BY-SA 3.0

Depth: 41 m

Elphinstone South

The plateaus of the south features a garden of soft corals, and look carefully for the colourful nudibranchs here. Sharks lurk at the tip. You can swim down the west side of the reef, and back up the east.

Depth: 52 - 65 m

Sarcophagus Archway

At the south end of Elphinstone is an archway. It's deep - 65 m - and contains a rock looking very like a sarcophagus.

Divers at the Sarcophagus Archway on Elphinstone by Tim Nicholson

"Arch was awesome done it twice...the rock is really like a sarcophagus. You can get through at around 55 m. "
Paul Zannini

Depth: >40 m

Elphinstone East

The east side is a great drop-off with huge gorgonia and yet more soft corals. There is some damage at the southern tip though. This can make a good, gentle (depending on the current obviously) drift dive. Large maori (napoleon) wrasse may escort you.

Depth: >40 m

Elphinstone West

The west is less steep and slightly sandier than the East. Again, huge gorgonia and corals. There are lots of overhangs and small caves. Titan triggerfish patrol and squirrel fish inhabit the overhangs. At around 15 m are many siderea grisea eels. A lovely dive with the possibility of seeing turtles.

Dive Operators

We recommend using a liveaboard to dive Elphinstone, but you can alternatively do it as a day trip from Marsa Alam.

Elphinstone Liveaboards - Compare prices online. Book now & pay later.

Sea Serpent

Luxury liveaboard with space for up to 20 divers. Visits The Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone.

Seawolf Dominator

English, Arabic and German spoken. Two dive professionals. Seven and eleven night trips.

Red Sea Aggressor II

Offer seven and ten day Egyptian diving cruises. From the Red Sea Aggressor II liveaboard you can swim among hammerheads, dolphins and abundant reef fish.

Topside, an attentive crew of 12 is on hand to attend to up to 20 guests.