Marsa Alam
St John's Caves (Umm Kharalim)
- Max depth20 m
- CertificationOpen water / no overhead
- Water temperature≈ 22–30 °C, varies with the seasonestimated, no reports yet
Diving and fills
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What it looks like
Diving St John’s Caves: The Red Sea’s Ultimate Swim-Throughs The Maze - St. John's Caves Egypt Cave diving at St Johns Caves, Red Sea Diving at St. John's Caves, Red Sea, Egypt (May/June-2025), 4K
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Videos and posts
From other divers, via YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. They only load when you click; after that, Google's or Meta's privacy rules apply.
Diving St John’s Caves: The Red Sea’s Ultimate Swim-Throughs The Maze - St. John's Caves Egypt Cave diving at St Johns Caves, Red Sea Diving at St. John's Caves, Red Sea, Egypt (May/June-2025), 4K
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Other people's footage, not advice: how someone else dives here says nothing about what suits your team. Dive within your training.
The dive
Through the openings in the roof, beams of light fall on the sandy floor of the passages. Shoals of cardinalfish, moray eels and reef fish swim among the coral, and stingrays lie on the sand.
Profile and sections
Through the openings in the roof, beams of light fall on the sandy floor of the passages. Shoals of cardinalfish, moray eels and reef fish swim among the coral, and stingrays lie on the sand. In the blue off the reef you may see grey reef and whitetip reef sharks, sometimes hammerheads early in the morning, and X-Ray Mag had dolphins join them on the safety stop.
The system is shallow enough for long dives and, per liveaboard.com, one of the finest caves of the St John's reefs. Emperor Divers also calls the site Umm Kharalim.
Practical: there is no pin on the map, as no source gives the spot. Per Emperor Divers, the cruise director may ask you to skip a dive that doesn't suit your experience.
- Depth and profile
- A maze of shallow caves, swim-throughs, chimneys and coral-covered tunnels; cracks in the reef open into caverns and overhangs. The dive goes from 5 to 20 m (Emperor Divers); UnderwaterPhotography.com gives a typical depth of 0–10 m.
- Configuration
- Mostly open passages with daylight through the openings, but an extensive maze: recreational gear with a torch, with a guide (estimate). Per the operators, good buoyancy control is a must.
Who can dive where
- At least Open water / no overhead
- Configurations: Backmount / twinset / Sidemount / CCR / Small cylinders / no-mount (speleo sumps)
- Goes down to 20 m (trimix or deco may be needed)
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
Only by liveaboard, on the routes to the deep south (such as South & St John's or Southern Solitude), mostly from Port Ghalib; dives are made from a zodiac. The reefs lie ~210 km south of Marsa Alam, 12–14 hours' sailing, close to the Sudanese border, in Elba National Park. Per liveaboard.com operators look for Advanced Open Water, experience with current and ideally 50+ logged dives; Dive The World calls the area one for experienced divers only.
Around St John's Caves (Umm Kharalim)
FillsNo fill station known nearby
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