Overview
El Erug is not one reef but a field of coral pinnacles scattered across sand north of Gota Abu Ramada, and the number of them is what shapes the dive. Three separate clusters hold around twenty-five ergs between them, all built to the same pattern and all looking alike from 12 m, which is why boats treat the area as a single site while divers routinely lose track of which cluster they are on.
Dive plan
The ergs divide into Erug Diana in the southwest, Erug Giftun in the middle and Erug Gigi in the northeast. Erug Giftun is a group of seven pinnacles. Erug Diana holds seven as well, its central structure split in two. Erug Gigi runs eleven pinnacles in a roughly straight line. Navigation is the real difficulty. With that many near-identical ergs standing on featureless sand, a diver without a compass has to fall back on the set of the current or the angle of the sun. The simpler answer is to pick two or three neighboring ergs and stay inside that box, and nothing is lost by doing so, since every cluster offers much the same thing. The tops of the ergs hold the best color, which makes the safety stop one of the better parts of the dive.
What to see
Four species of moray live here: yellowmouth, giant, snowflake and peppered. Napoleon wrasse pass through, bluespotted ribbontail rays settle on the sand between the ergs, and crocodilefish and scorpionfish hold position on the bottom where the sand meets coral, waiting rather than hunting.
What you'll see9
Dive sites nearby
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