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Scuba Diving in AqabaJO
Jordan's 27km Red Sea window: shore-dive wrecks, a sunken military museum, and warm, clear water year-round at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Why here
Jordan's short Red Sea coastline packs an unusual density of purpose-sunk wrecks, and almost all of them are reachable from shore. The 74m freighter Cedar Pride, scuttled in the mid-1980s at the initiative of then-Prince Abdullah, lies coral-covered at around 25m with resident seahorses. A C-130 Hercules sits intact on the sand nearby, and since 2019 the Underwater Military Museum has lined up tanks, armored carriers, and a combat helicopter in battle formation on the seabed. The fringing reefs along South Beach sit inside the protected Aqaba Marine Reserve, water stays warm enough to dive comfortably in any month, and prices undercut the Egyptian resorts across the gulf.
Best months
Diveable year-round: water around 21C in late winter, 27C by September. Visibility peaks September to November. July and August are brutal topside but fine underwater. Spring and autumn are the sweet spot for combining Aqaba with Wadi Rum and Petra.
Getting there & around
Fly to Aqaba direct or drive four hours south from Amman. Dive centers cluster along the South Beach road toward the Saudi border and run shore entries or short boat hops. Wadi Rum is an hour away, which makes a desert-and-reef week easy to build.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Arab Divers
SchoolLong-running PADI operation in Aqaba with daily guided wreck and reef dives and a full course ladder, listed on PADI's own Cedar Pride dive-site directory.
Deep Blue Dive Center
SchoolPADI 5 Star center on the South Beach strip running shore dives on the Cedar Pride, the C-130, and the Underwater Military Museum, plus courses from Open Water to professional levels.