Gordon reef

Overview

Gordon Reef is the southernmost of the four coral towers — Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon — that rise from the deep water of the Straits of Tiran, where the Gulf of Aqaba narrows to a few kilometres of navigable channel. Named, like its neighbours, after nineteenth-century British cartographers, the reefs split the strait into two shipping passages still used by commercial traffic today. Gordon is the nearest of the four to Sharm el-Sheikh and the first reached on a northbound day boat, which is why it appears on almost every Tiran itinerary. Its reef top sits barely below the surface, and it is instantly identifiable from a distance by the broken hull of a freighter stranded on its northern edge.

Why divers come

The draw is a rare combination: a genuinely large, gently shelving sandy plateau on a site that is otherwise a wall dive, plus a piece of maritime history you can see from the boat deck. On 29 September 1981 the cargo vessel Loullia, sailing in ballast from Aqaba toward Suez, was pushed off course in a storm and grounded on the reef’s northern edge. Refloating attempts failed, the crew abandoned her on 2 October, and she was written off as a total loss. She has sat there ever since, bows to the east, corroding and breaking into sections. Divers do not penetrate or dive beneath the hull — it is structurally unsound — but drums and cabling from her cargo lie scattered on the reef around the 15-metre mark, now crusted in coral and sheltering reef fish.

The dive

Boats typically moor on the sheltered side and dives are run either as a mooring dive or as a drift, depending on the day’s flow. The plateau fans out to the south-west at roughly 10 to 25 metres, ending in a drop-off into blue water. In its middle is a rounded sandy depression widely called the “Amphitheatre” or “Shark Pool” — the feature many operators loosely refer to as a shark observatory, though the site formally carrying that name lies in Ras Mohammed National Park, not here. Large gorgonian fans stand around its rim at roughly 22–25 metres. A shallower sandy stretch on the way back to the mooring holds a colony of garden eels, best approached slowly and from a distance. Debris from the wreck and from decades of boat traffic — drums, cable, discarded gear — is a visible and unglamorous part of the seascape.

Marine life

The Amphitheatre is the reason for the site’s reputation: whitetip reef sharks are sometimes found resting on the sand there, and eagle rays pass along the plateau edge. Both are occasional, not dependable — divers who treat a shark sighting as a bonus rather than an expectation come away happier. Schooling barracuda, tuna and trevally patrol the drop-off, and bannerfish, groupers, snappers, surgeonfish, unicornfish, turtles, giant morays and Napoleon wrasse are regulars on the reef proper. Summer months bring the best odds of pelagic action in the strait generally; hammerheads are a Tiran possibility rather than a Gordon speciality.

Conditions & who should dive it

Gordon is usually described as the gentlest of the four Tiran reefs, and it is — but that is a relative statement. Current pushes through the strait unpredictably, is often strongest on the southern plateau and along the ascending edge, and can turn a relaxed plateau swim into a drift with little warning. This is an active shipping lane; stay with the guide, carry an SMB and deploy it before surfacing. Visibility is commonly in the 20–25 metre range. Sensible prerequisites are solid buoyancy, current experience and an advanced-level certification.

When to go

Diveable year-round. Water runs roughly 22°C in late winter to around 28°C at the height of summer, with summer bringing warmer water, calmer surface conditions and the better pelagic window; winter is cooler, sometimes windier, and quieter.

Getting there

Day boats from Sharm el-Sheikh, roughly an hour to ninety minutes depending on departure marina. Gordon is normally the first or last stop on a Tiran day, often paired with Thomas, Woodhouse or Jackson.

A note on protection

The Tiran reefs fall within Egypt’s protected-area system administered alongside Ras Mohammed National Park, and a per-person park fee applies to boat trips. Rates change and differ by nationality and activity — confirm the current figure with your operator, and carry cash, as fees are usually collected on the boat or at the gate.