Eilat: Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Eilat hosts the most northern coral reefs in the world, and snorkeling or diving is done everywhere.
But please note.

The coral reefs are of course very fragile, so you cannot enter the sea wherever you want.
Special 'beaches' have been made - and you have to pay before you can enter them - and you're only allowed to enter the sea via a long jetty. Ok so far.

Then there's a guard that starts yelling whenever you swim outside the flags or inside the buoys (fencing off the reefs!). Great when you can't hear anything because you're snorkeling, but ok, I see why they're on guard.

Not that the reefs are very special, IMHO. They're in a dire condition, whitened because of water pollution, not much re-growth and there are not so many fish - but some of the fish that swim around  are larger than I've ever seen before. And very, very beautiful...

Here are some pics of the cruise we made on the Sabbath.
4 hrs. on a former fishing boat, with an on board BBQ, and views of four countries: Israel, Jordania, Saudi-Arabia and Egypt.
The sea was lovely warm, we could try out our newly bought snorkeling sets and that was great...

I start the photos with the backs of the containers-cum-shops and some harbour pics. Then the part of the beach reserved for orthodox Jews: man and women apart (and only sun bathing, no swimming!).
I end with photos from the surrounding countries. It's really interesting, sailing there!