---
title: Gota Abu Makadi
type: Reef dive site
location: Makadi Bay, Red Sea, Egypt
coordinates: 26.992900848388672, 33.91170120239258
max_depth_m: 40
published: 2023-11-25T21:59:56.557Z
updated: 2026-09-06T15:01:57.565Z
tags: Gota Abu Makadi, Reef, Red Sea, Dive site, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/gota-abu-makadi
---

# Gota Abu Makadi

## Quick facts

- **Type:** Reef
- **Location:** Makadi Bay, Red Sea, Egypt
- **Coordinates:** 26.992900848388672, 33.91170120239258
- **Max depth:** 40 m
- **Level:** Advanced

## Good to know

- Suitable for beginners
- Best for advanced divers

## Overview

Gota Abu Makadi is a cluster of coral pinnacles standing on flat sand, each one separated from the next by open bottom. That separation is what shapes the dive: every pinnacle works as a closed system with its own anemones, its own cleaners and its own resident fish, so a second circuit of the same structure turns up animals missed on the first. Gota is the local word for exactly this, a coral head standing apart from the reef.

## Location

Eastern Makadi Bay, about ten minutes by boat.

## Conditions

Calm and shallow, workable at any level of experience. The separated pinnacles give clear references, which is why the site is used for navigation and buoyancy training.

## Dive plan

The usual route starts at the largest pinnacle and works outward through the smaller ones. Anemones on the flanks hold clownfish, morays sit in the crevices, and bannerfish school off the tops.

The sand between the structures is the other half of the dive rather than the crossing between its parts: bluespotted stingrays rest on it and flatfish lie buried with only their eyes clear. Depths stay modest enough to make this a comfortable second dive of the day, and the light coming off the sand is even, which is what makes the site photographic.

## What to see

Scorpionfish, moray eels, nudibranchs and octopus are the standing residents. Green turtles come through to feed, and flatfish on the sand change pattern to match whatever they have settled on.

## Species recorded here (3)

- Big Blue Octopus (*Octopus cyanea*)
- Green Sea Turtle (*Chelonia mydas*)
- Tasseled Scorpionfish (*Scorpaenopsis oxycephala*)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/gota-abu-makadi)*
*Updated: September 6, 2026*