El Shugurat

Also known as: El Shugarat · Little Trees · Shogayrat · Shogharat

El Shugurat, Arabic for little trees, lies just north of Gabr el Bint and is normally reached by boat. A steep reef slope drops to about 16 m onto a broad sand shelf at around 20 m, from which divers follow the drop-off north to a wide, open crack in the reef. Swimming down between its walls to about 25 to 30 m, they pass two large black corals shaped like fir trees, where longnose hawkfish hide, and leave the canyon onto the wall. Often carried by the current, they then fly over the gorgonian forest that gives the site its name, with fans full of glassfish, mixed with soft corals and stretching down the wall out of sight. The dive ends on a sand plateau and in a lagoon counted among the prettiest near Dahab, with table corals up to 4 m across, hawksbill and green turtles, milkfish near the surface, nudibranchs, crocodilefish and blue-spotted rays; currents are common and can be strong, so each buddy team carries a surface marker buoy.