Japanese Garden

Eilat's most celebrated reef dive site is a shallow, intricately structured hard coral garden where decades of strict Israeli marine reserve protection have produced coral colonies of exceptional age and density in water so clear that the full reef panorama is visible from the surface. Table corals, brain corals, and branching Acropora create a three-dimensional labyrinth at 5-18 metres that shelters an extraordinary diversity of reef fish — lionfish, stonefish, moray eels, and dozens of chromis and anthias species weave through the structure at every depth. The site's designation within the Eilat Coral Beach Nature Reserve means no anchoring, no touching, and no fishing, policies enforced since 1964 that explain why this reef looks so different from almost every other easily accessible Red Sea dive site.