Sharm El Sheikh's Best Nature Spots
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Sharm el-Sheikh’s real natural draw is almost entirely underwater, but two protected areas anchor the land-based nature side too. This is the biodiversity picture behind why the Red Sea keeps pulling divers back.
Ras Mohammed National Park
Egypt’s first national park, established in 1983, covers 480 km² of land and water at the Sinai’s southern tip. The numbers here are genuinely striking: over 220 coral species, including 125 soft coral varieties, more than 1,000 fish species, 40 starfish species, 25 sea urchin species, and over 100 mollusk species. Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef are the famous dive sites, but the park’s Mangrove Channel, a shallow snorkel-and-kayak site formed by earthquake-related inland cracks, is a quieter, shallower way to see the same ecosystem from above the waterline.
Nabq Protected Area
North of Sharm, this 600 km² reserve holds the northernmost mangrove stands in the entire Red Sea and Indian Ocean region, a roughly 4.5km fringe of Avicennia marina trees that serve as fish nurseries and bird nesting grounds. The reserve counts 208 hard coral species and 438 fish species in its waters, and on land it’s home to more than 20 globally threatened species, including marine turtles, sharks, dugongs, ospreys and Nubian ibex. It’s managed with input from the local El Mezina Bedouin tribe, a genuinely community-run protected area rather than a purely government one.
The Straits of Tiran
The reef chain here, Jackson, Gordon, Thomas and Woodhouse, sits in open water between the Sinai and the island of Tiran, and its strong currents are exactly what brings in the big pelagic fish, sharks, barracuda and tuna among them, that make this stretch a magnet for experienced divers. It’s a different kind of nature spot from the sheltered mangroves above, wilder and more current-driven, and it’s best experienced by boat rather than from shore.
Shore reefs for a quieter look
If a full dive trip isn’t in the plan, the house reefs at Naama Bay, Ras Um Sid and Shark’s Bay give an easier, shallower look at Red Sea marine life, water running roughly 21-28°C year round depending on season, warmest around August and September. These are also where most beginner snorkelers get their first look at the reef system that Ras Mohammed and Tiran are famous for.
For dive-specific detail on Ras Mohammed and Tiran, our main Sharm el-Sheikh guide covers logistics, and for the desert and hiking side of Sharm’s nature, see our hiking areas guide .
One concrete tip: if you only have time for one nature-focused excursion beyond diving, pick Nabq over a repeat dive trip. It’s the one place around Sharm where you’ll reliably see both marine and land wildlife in the same half day, mangroves, turtles and desert mammals all in one outing.