Offshore reefAdvancedMarsa Alam

The Brothers Islands

Also known as El Akhawein — Big Brother and Little Brother

Two isolated islands far offshore in the Marine Park, with sheer walls, two wrecks and the most consistent big-animal diving in Egypt.

Depth: 10–40m on the walls; both wrecks on Big Brother run deep
Access: Liveaboard only — roughly 60km offshore, with no day-boat access
Best season: May to July and September to November; the crossing is rough outside those windows
Level: Advanced

The Brothers are two small islands in open water off the Egyptian coast, reachable only by liveaboard, and they are where Red Sea diving becomes serious. The walls fall away vertically, the current runs hard along them, and the reward is the most consistent shark diving in the country.

Big Brother carries the wrecks — the Numidia, a British cargo ship lost in 1901, lying steeply down the northern wall, and the Aida, a supply vessel sunk in 1957. Both are deep. Little Brother has no wreck and, for many divers, the better diving: a plateau where thresher sharks come to be cleaned, and soft coral on the walls that is hard to overstate.

None of this is casual diving. Boats brief hard, entries are timed to the current, and a dive that goes wrong here goes wrong in open ocean. Operators who insist on experience requirements are the ones to book with.

Conditions

Genuinely open ocean: strong current is normal and swell decides the schedule
Wall dives with no shallow refuge — you drift and get collected
Marine Park permits required; access has been restricted at times to protect the sharks

What you are likely to see

Thresher sharks, most reliably around Little Brother’s plateau early in the day
Oceanic whitetips and grey reef sharks
Hammerheads in season
Some of the densest soft coral in the Red Sea, particularly on Little Brother

What to watch out for

The Numidia and Aida wrecks on Big Brother both start deep and drop steeply. They are frequently dived beyond recreational limits — know your own.
Currents here can be unforgiving and there is nothing downstream. Carry a surface marker buoy and know how to deploy it before the dive, not during it.
Access rules change. Check the current Marine Park position with your operator when you book, not when you arrive.

This is planning information, not a dive briefing or a substitute for one. Conditions change; your guide on the day is the authority. Diving emergency numbers and the coast’s recompression chambers are on our emergency contacts page.