Dhalak Bank

Dhalak Bank is a submerged coral plateau rising from the deep water of the southern Red Sea, a place so remote and infrequently visited that the reef here still looks the way most Red Sea reefs looked decades ago. Coral cover is pristine, with enormous table corals extending 2 m across, massive Porites boulders towering over the sand, and delicate branching colonies in every shallow gully that have never experienced anchor drag or diver contact. The fish biomass is staggering: dense schools of snapper and sweetlips pack the reef edges, napoleon wrasse move in pairs, and large groupers occupy every cave and overhang. Grey reef sharks patrol the outer drop-off with quiet authority.