Rainbow Reef Aqaba, Jordan

Rainbow Reef: Dive Site Overview

This one's easy to find, so we'll gear up on shore at the divers' platform, and head straight out for a very short swim to 6 m depth. We've already reached the end of the "rainbow"! Now it's a simple matter of following the reef contour down to about 18 m, where we'll turn north for an impressive wall diving experience.

We cruise serenely over sand with 4 telecommunications cables (laid in 1996 between Jordan and Egypt), running below us and coral walls on either side. The northern wall of this site is actually a thriving artificial reef, constructed to protect those cables and home to a wide variety of wildlife.

Everything we would have missed during the day is active now - we see octopi, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, and other invertebrates hunting and picking away at the reef, unafraid of their daytime predators who sleep hidden away within the reef.

Morays and lionfish actively scour a reef peppered with Spanish Dancers and other nudibranchs - all between a spiny forest of feather stars in every colour of the rainbow, waving in the gentle current.

If we dive here during the day, we'll see a huge assortment of fish life including a variety of parrotfish, butterfly fish, wrasse, and scorpion fish. Eagle rays provide a graceful backdrop for the bustling reef.

It's beautiful in the daytime, too, but really - this is Aqaba's most popular night dive site for a reason.