Aqaba

Almost all the diving is done from the road. Centres load tanks into a pickup, drive south along the coast to whichever site is on the plan, and divers kit up in the shade of a beach camp and walk in through a break in the shallow reef table. With no boat schedule to keep, the day stays flexible: long surface intervals over lunch, an extra shallow dive if people want one, and night diving that needs nothing more than turning up after dark.

The shelf is narrow, so the reef starts close to the beach and the slope falls away quickly, with sand channels running down between coral knolls and short walls. One entry usually gives both a deeper outward leg and a shallow return, and navigation is simple, with the reef on one shoulder going out and on the other coming back. Jordan has added to the coast deliberately as well: a line of decommissioned military vehicles laid out on a sand slope as an underwater museum, deeper than most of the shore sites and generally reached by boat, and a retired military transport aircraft sunk on the sand nearby.

The gulf is enclosed and sheltered, so conditions stay steady and rough water is unusual. The real seasonal swing is on land, where summer heat is severe at exactly the time the water is warmest, from May through September; winter diving carries on in a thicker suit with the sea down around the low twenties. It rewards divers who like working a small area closely, with structure to explore, small life to hunt and familiar sites that read differently after dark. Anyone here for big pelagic action will find it quiet.