Farasan Banks, Saudi Arabia

By André Crone (Adapted from "passport to diving the world")

Well Known For :

Pristine diving conditions make Farasan Banks an ideal dive destination.

Given the chance to dive where few have dived before is too good an opportunity to pass up. On every dive in this newly opened destination we were greeted by enormous gorgonians, soft corals, and bubble corals. Best of all, the deeper we descended the bigger the gorgonians became. Unlike many of the reefs in the Middle East, the reefs of the Farasan Banks are pristine - because they've not yet been dived by the "package divers" from Europe. Not yet at least. There's still the chance to explore, as we did. Most of the time the only knowledge we had of a reef was from the navigation equipment on board our boat. There is a reef. Hop in. You might be rewarded like I was: On my last dive we had the honour of discovering the first known wreck in Farasan.

(Ok enough with the stories, I'm itchin' for a dive)