Dive With Thousands of Eels At The ‘Eel Garden’ Dive Site, Dahab

Dahab in Egypt has long been known as one of the Best Red Sea Dive Spots & dive destinations and is very well known for it’s most popular dive site- The Dahab Blue Hole. However, there’s more too diving in Dahab than just blue hole diving. One such Dahab dive site that rated among it’s best is the ‘Eel Garden’ where as you guessed, you can dive with thousands of eels.

Offshore at the north end of Dahab’s Bedouin village, the entry to this shore dive is through a small lagoon which descends from the reef top to an exit point on the reef at about 7m (23ft). The entry lagoon is hardly more than 1.5 m /5 ft wide at some points and sometimes acts as a funnel for wave surge or runout caused by falling tides, making it a demanding swim at times. However, just outside the lagoon is a sandy slop leading off to the North, it’s this wide patch of sand carpeted by thousands of garden eels that gives this dive site its name.

The shy garden eels that are usually wary of divers almost appear like fantastic dancers, waving to and fro in the current like synchronized swimmers but disappear as soon as you near them. Watching them pop out of the sand to feed on plankton is quite a sight as the sheer numbers create a landscape that resembles that of long grass sticking out of the ground like a garden.

Around the eel garden, you are treated by some fine coral growth with stony and soft species including Acropora, antler coral, plate, cabbage, elephant ear sponge, Dendronephthya and Xeniids along with plenty of Anemones. So apart for the eels, the site offers up a wide array of marine life and fish like bannerfish, parrotfish, angelfish, batfish, unicornfish, as well as schooling anthias and damsels. Stingrays handout near the the bottom and clam and pipefish are common as well making it great site for underwater photography.

So although the eels are the main attraction of this dive site it has a lot more to see, so make sure on your dive here to take the time to visit the neighboring reef teaming with life and picture perfect photography opportunities.

*Photo Credits: photos by Nemo’s great uncle, divemecressi, hazy jenius on flickr

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