Ras Mohammed

Ras Mohammed is at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba meet the Red Sea proper. It was declared Egypt's first national park in 1983 and covers both the headland and a large marine area around it.

The site is among the best known dive locations in the world, and the reason is topography. The reef drops from the surface to hundreds of metres within a short distance, and currents from three bodies of water converge, bringing nutrients and pelagic fish; Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, joined by a saddle, are the sites everyone dives. Yolanda takes its name from a freighter that sank in 1980 and left its cargo — bathroom fittings, toilets, baths — scattered across the reef, where it still lies.

The shore itself is coral rubble and small pockets of sand, with entry at designated points. There is a mangrove channel, a salt marsh and a crack in the ground from the 1968 earthquake. Swimming and snorkelling are permitted only in marked areas. A mangrove channel on the headland is the northernmost mangrove stand in the world, and the salt marsh behind it supports migrating birds crossing between Africa and Eurasia.

Facilities are those of a national park — gates, fees, tracks, ranger posts and marked trails — and there is no accommodation inside. Sharm El Sheikh is twenty minutes north. The park also covers Tiran Island in the strait, and the currents between them are what make the diving here what it is.

Three bodies of water meet at the tip of Sinai and the reef drops hundreds of metres within a short swim, which is why this has been dived since the 1980s and why Egypt made it the country's first national park in 1983. Marked entry points only. The Yolanda's cargo of bathroom fittings is still scattered across the reef and is exactly as odd as it sounds.