Diving in Aqaba
Picture yourself gliding along a deep reef wall covered in brightly coloured, soft and hard corals. The visibility is 100+ ft, the temperature is 78 degrees, and the current is virtually non-existent.
Lucky Aqaba has been blessed with the coastlines of the Red Sea.
Divers choose Aqaba as their favourable diving location into the red sea
The waters in the Red Sea are teeming with biodiversity rarely seen elsewhere.
With more than 1,200 species of fish, pelagic life, and vividly coloured corals that are unrivalled across the world, it’s easy to see why the Red Sea remains a bucket-list trip for divers.
Types of Diving in Aqaba
One of the best things about diving in Aqaba is that there are various sites with different topographies, which every dive is a completely new dive.
Aqaba offers wrecks, shallow fringing reefs, underwater museum,
Types of dives you can do.
Reef Diving.
Aqaba offers reef lovers a myriad of fringing and offshore reefs to choose from. and the water temperature in Aqaba is suitable for corals where the temperature 25-22 around the year. The balanced temperature in Aqaba gave the corals advantages to have a variety in colours.
Divers who visit the Red Sea for the first time often comment on just how colourful it is.
This sea is not just one of the warmest ones in the world, it’s also one of the saltiest. This unique environment means that there is marine life here that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.
One such species is the Red Sea walkman, named so because it really does walk on all six of its legs. Part scorpionfish and part arachnid, this creature has to be seen to be believed
Macro Diving in Aqaba
Fans of macro life will find plenty to turn their attention to in the Red Sea. Colourful nudibranchs, seahorses, frogfish, and the notorious harlequin shrimp all call the Red Sea home.
Take a very precise look and you will find the incredibly shy leopard blenny hiding behind hard corals.
Many divers will enjoy combing the seagrass meadows looking for all manner of weird little creatures hiding away. Look out for the ghost pipefish which looks exactly like a leaf of dead seagrass.
Wreck Diving in Jordan
The TriStar plane is a non-Jordanian commercial that has been out of service and parked at King Hussein International Airport for several years. ASEZA recently purchased it to sink it and was transferred to the main port in preparation for that purpose to join its military aircraft companion; Hercules C130 which was sunken in November 2017. Today the C130 became a stop for diving enthusiasts and a home for the fish schools, corals and marine organisms.
The cedar Pride was scuttled for divers on November 16th 1985. The ship now lies on her port side across two reefs; the soft coral growth on its masts. Those with experience can explore the ship hull, as it still is very stable.
Mentioning the ship lays on a very beautiful canyon, where corals surround the ship with beautiful colours.
Tarmac Five (Barge Wreck)
This wreck was scuttled in 1996 after Alcatel had finished laying the electrical cables to Egypt. It lies not far from the cedar pride and when it went. It landed over the corner of an old sunken fishing boat that has been there since the 71`s. Although the wreck itself is not much to look at, it is a host to a good variety of marine life, blue-spotted stingrays, frogfish and a good deal more. The inside is full of banded coral shrimps!
Take a tour around here when you dive the cedar pride. Do these at the beginning of your dive as it is deeper than the cedar pride.
Taiyong
This large crane barge was deliberately scuttled in 1999 near the Japanese Gardens dive site and sits on its starboard side at a maximum depth of 57m. With the highest point at 35m, it's accessible to divers with advanced and deep certifications. It's an excellent wreck for technical diving, especially aficionados of the Tec/Rec courses that are becoming more and more popular. Tyres and winches can be seen along the superstructure and the crane which broke and led to the eventual sinking of the ship is swathed in black corals and gorgonian fans.
There is plenty of coral growth in the location, it is less extensive with colours than the Cedar Pride due to the Taiyong's depth, but you can see lionfish hunting the schools of glassfish inside the wreck
This dive can be made with a circular route with a tour around the table corals (once referred to as a walk through the “grannies” garden), and then you can turn your way back to the tank wreck at 6m to do your safety stop. The area around the various pinnacles is busy with marine life, you'll find lots of Scorpion Fish there, and if you look carefully in the sand, you'll find many Triton Shellfish which keep the Crown of Thorns Starfish.
The C-130 Hercules is shallow enough for novices but great for more advanced divers. The C-130 'Hercules' transport aircraft was sunk in November 2017 to build a new aquatic life. an attractive and easily accessible dive site.
Sunk in less than 18m of water, close to shore and not far from the Tank (see below), the Hercules is also an excellent wreck to snorkel, with the tip of the giant tail fin rising to just below the surface. a very suitable for beginners where they can swim around it, and also for those who are certified which they can enter it.
Shorouk Wreck
Deep off the Eel Canyon dive site, to the West of Kirk's Forest in 38 - 58m lies the Shorouk shipwreck. It was scuttled by the Aqaba Marine Park on 18th June 2008 to create an amazing site for technical divers. due to its depth, coral growth happens more slowly than in the sunny waters above, she almost looks like she could’ve sunk yesterday.
How to Dive in Aqaba
There are a few different ways to dive in Aqaba with a range of options to suit all budgets.
Plus, with the diversity of the dive sites, there are choices to suit both beginners and those with a little more experience under their weight belts.
Booking diving and snorkelling In Aqaba
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Useful Links:
AQABA.
JORDAN TOURISM BOARD.
ROYAL JORDANIAN.
TURKISH AIRLINES.
Marine Science Station.