Fanous East
which means a “lighthouse” in Arabic, is located at the eastern and more popular part of reef. The reef itself is 300 m long and extends from the east to the west. Furthermore, it is divided into two parts: El Fanous East and El Fanous West.
Dive route:
Our boat will be moored up in the southern part of reef, often in the small lagoon protecting us from the waves. The depth under the boat is about 12 m. When keeping the reef on our left hand side we head east, about 15 m from the wall, over a sandy bottom. One of the three ergs situated at this dive site will await us just after the curve. We can semicircle around it. Afterwards we follow the line of the decline and dive north at about 14 m. In about 30 m the next erg will appear, known as TV because of the hole from the northern side entirely filled with Glass Fish, soft corals, shrimps, and whip corals. When hanging in the mid-water and looking in this direction we will have an impression as if were watching TV. Additional 30 m to the north will lead us to the last erg found here. It has a hole as well, but from the top, which creates a kind f a chimney. We return keeping the reef on the right hand side about 10 m of depth. Reaching the curve with the first erg is a sign that our depth should decrease to 5 m as our safety stop is due.
Flora & fauna:
We can discover many interesting creatures hiding in the sand at this dive site: Stone Fish, Stargazer, Crocodile Fish, Moth Fish or even endemic Red Sea Walkman. All three ergs are covered with soft and hard corals forming specific colonies of life growing from the coral bottom. Among interesting creatures we can find here; shrimps at the bottom of TV’s monitor in the second erg or huge Grouper living by the third erg. It is not really paying attention to the presence of divers and charmingly posing for photos. At reefs wall, at the depth of about 5-6 m, there are many soft corals often attracting Turtles or small Peppered Morey Eels.
Depths: from 6 m to 16 m
(click to enlarge)
