Well, it’s definitely a sea, but I’m not sure quite how red it is. The Red Sea, or Al-bahr Al ahmar, is a narrow strip of water separating Africa from Arabia, extending southwards from Suez for about 2000 km until the Strait of Mandeb which connects with the Gulf of Aden, thence forward into the Arabian Sea. At its widest point it’s 300 km across and splits into two at the northern end, either side of the Sinai Peninsula, forming the shallow Straits of Suez on the west and the rather deeper Gulf of Aquaba on the east. This Red Sea trough formed in two phases of land motion. The first movement of Africa away from Arabia began 55 million years ago and then the Gulf of Suez opened up 30 million years ago. The second movement was a mere 4 million years ago, creating the trough in the Gulf of Aquaba and the southern half of the Red Sea which reaches depths of over 3000 metres. This movement continues even today at a rate of 15mm a year, splitting us slowly apart from mainland.

The Red Sea is one of the first mentioned large bodies of water in recorded history, becoming very important to Egyptian maritime commerce around 2000 BC, and was first charted in 1500 BC due to the fact that Queen Hatshepsut sailed along its entire length. Later on, it was also used as a water route to India. In 1869, the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps oversaw the completion of the Suez Canal thus joining the Mediterranean with The Red Sea. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now there aren’t a lot of rivers feeding The Red Sea, in fact there aren’t any, but fortunately there’s an inflow of water driven up by the north winds from the Gulf of Aden. The existing salty water, its high salinity caused mostly by evaporation, sinks below the less dense incoming waters from the south and exits over a sill at Bab el-Mandeb, resulting in a complete renewal of water every 20 years. In the deepest portions of the Red Sea trough there are also pools of extremely saline water with an average temperature of 60 degrees C. Heated from below, these pools become unstable and disperse with the general circulation of water.

However, the reason for the recent popularity of the Red Sea, apart from as a shipping route, is the profusion of life found just below its surface which revolves around its coral reefs. These reefs can be divided into two distinct types, those joined to the land masses and those sprouting from the depths like little islands. All around the Sinai coast, almost unbroken stretches of coral reef jut out into the sea from the base of the cliffs, virtually underwater shelves which stop suddenly and plunge down to the depths giving rise to our famous wall dives such as those found at Ras Mohamed. These walls often have fissures or caves, sometimes open at the top allowing the sunlight to enter and cast shadows that render them ideal for underwater photography.