Ras Mohammed N P

fossil coral reef that out of Sharm el-Sheikh the coast is totally deserted, with no shelter, for more than a

mile, up to the small bay named Marsa Ghozlani, where the Ras Mohammed National Park begins.

This is followed by another bay, Marsa Bareika, which is much larger and deeper. It penetrates the land for 2.8 miles, forming the Ras Mohammed peninsula, which extends south-eastwards into the Red Sea for almost 5 miles and separates the Gulf of Aqaba from the Gulf of Suez.

The eastern coast of the Ras Mohammed peninsula is composed of a tallis interrupted for a few dozen meters by the only accessible

its profile is like the bearded one of the Prophet. The rocky spur is about 60 meters high: on top of it is the Shark Observatory balcony.

On the southern side of the peninsula there are three beaches – Shark Observatory Beach, Main Beach and Yolanda Beach – the sandy, shallow Hidden Bay, the mouth of which is almost completely blocked by a long coral reef that divides the peninsula of Ras Mohammed into two rocky land spits.

A shallow channel forms a small island called Mangrove Island on the western side with a small beacon. On the sides of the channel grow numerous mangroves (Avicennia marina), which represent an important ecosystem. Mangroves are special plants, quite rare in the Sinai, and thanks to their incredible root system they are able to filter nutrients from the seawater, expelling salt crystals through their leaves.

The western side of the peninsula is low and sandy, and its primary attraction is the only mooring, which is well sheltered, in the area on a level with the half-submerged remains of an old jetty known as The Quay. Because of its geographic

position the Ras Mohammed peninsula is a privileged area distinguished for the strong, massive currents that transport large quantities of plankton and other food that give rise to an extraordinary growth of hard and soft corals and attract large schools of both reef and pelagic marine fauna. With the great abundance of food, barracuda, jackfish, tuna and sharks swarm in these waters, especially between June to August, offering divers the chance to make extremely interesting and exciting dives. The classic diving sites begin at the northern and southern-most tip of Marsa Bareika, respectively known as Ras Ghozlani and Ras Za’atar, and continue along the eastern coast with Ras Burg, Jackfish Alley, Eel Garden and Shark Observatory (also known as Ras Mohammed Wall), and at the southern end of the peninsula with Anemone City, Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef.

Ras Mohammed constitutes the southernmost promontory of the Sinai separating the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez. The impressive rock masses are made from fossil corals, of which the most ancient go back to the Pleistocene era (from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago). They are testimony to an important variation of the sea level. Due to its particular position, its geomorphological features with huge desert planes, dune zones, wadis and mountainous terrain, as well as a series of other factors such as the presence of a coral bank extraordinary rich in fauna and a mangrove zone, the whole area, proves to have an extraordinary ecological and faunistic richness comprising 218 coral species

(hard and soft), more than 1,000 fish species, 80 plant species, 220 bird species, and 14 mammal species. There are thousands of migrating birds during the autumn in Ras Mohammed, in particular the White Storks (Ciconia ciconia) who stop for a pause during their journey from Europe to southern Africa where they live. In order to protect and conserve the entire area of Ras Mohammed, the Egyptian Government established its first national park in 1983 which initially covered a territory of 97 square kilometres. It was extended in 1988 with the annexation of the northern coast of Sharm el-Sheikh and the Islands of Tiran and Sanafir to give a total territory of 480 square kilometres. The marine part of the protected area

The central area of the Ras Mohammed National Park viewed by the satellite Landsat

compared to 115 square kilometres of land. Around 150,000 tourists are drawn to this area every year (only 10% of the territory is open to the public, the rest is closed for conservation purposes) and at least 100,000 tourists arrive by sea.