The Red Sea’s one unique lighthouse after another

The Red Sea is home to numerous reefs and islands yet only a handful of lighthouses have been built since the 1800s. All three islands (Daedalus, Big Brother, Sanganeb) are famous mainly for shark and adventure diving.

1. Daedalus Lighthouse

Daedalus – also known as Abu Kizan –, is an individual reef in the Egyptian Red Sea, about 90km south of Marsa Alam, measuring 400m in length and 100m in width. In the middle of the reef lies a small artificial island with a pier and a lighthouse at its top that was built in 1863 and renewed in 1931. You can reach the island by climbing a ladder at the end of the pier. The top of the lighthouse can be accessed by a spiral staircase. The climb is worth it because the view from above is gorgeous.

Experiencing Daedalus underwater is just as magical and full of surprises. You can always count on running into sharks here – hammerheads, thresher and grey reef sharks and also turtles and mantas are frequent visitors. The reef walls are covered with rich hard and soft corals and the largest “Nemo City” in the Red Sea can also be found on Daedalus.

2. Big Brother Lighthouse

The Big Brother Reef boasts a natural sand island in its middle with several buildings, a pier and a lighthouse. The island can sometimes be visited by divers, depending on tourist traffic. Often up to 10-15 liveaboards can meet up here with about 20 divers per boat.

Once on the island, climbing up the spiral staircase of the lighthouse is a must. The view from here is exceptional! Just the great big sea as far as the eye can see! All of a sudden it becomes obvious how those currents can form that can drag you to several hundreds of metres in less than a minute.

You can dive two wrecks, the Numidia and the Aida, both of which lie on the side of island.

Since this reef sits right in the open sea, anything can swim up to you during the dives, providing for plenty to see.

3. Sanganeb Lighthouse

This is one of Red Sea’s dive sites that promises some of the best adventures and miracle even for experienced and hardcore divers! Sanganeb is the closest reef to Port Sudan, north of the harbour. This is the most spectacular reef with its beautiful lagoon and lighthouse shooting to 50m in the air.

While sailing towards Sanganeb, the lighthouse can be spotted in the open sea, standing on the outer rim of the coral reefs. Divers like to climb to the top of the tower and take sensational photographs – the only type of photographs you can take here.

The reef’s northern and southern plateaus can be dived and the eastern wall as well. Currents are strong (sometimes downward) on the two plateaus and lots of sharks can be expected, especially hammerheads.

All three dive sites can only be accessed by liveaboards and in Sudan there is no diving from the shore at all. There are no divecenter on the islands.