Eilat · Israel · Artificial reef · Reef
Red Sea Star
A closed 1995 underwater restaurant on a shallow reef
Area photo: Yonatan Dodin · CC BY 4.0
The Red Sea Star is the shell of an underwater restaurant, assembled in 1995 with its dining hall 6 metres below the surface and standing unused since it closed around 2012. The dive is a shallow shore potter around the structure and the reef beside it, worked slowly for macro on ground its own site description calls probably the northernmost coral reef in the world.
Also known as The Underwater Restaurant, Kisosky Beach.
Where it is and how deep
29.5472° N, 34.9540° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive is shallow and short on navigation: you enter from the beach beside a walkway about 70 metres long, and the building is the landmark. Its underwater hall sits 6 metres down and carries 62 pressure-resistant panoramic windows, and the whole structure is pinned to the bottom on 34 columns driven 15 metres into the seabed. It has been shut since about 2012, so the interest is in what the outside of the structure has become rather than in anything behind the glass.
Around it is the reef, and that is where the time goes. The ground near shore is worked slowly for macro rather than covered at speed, on what the site description calls probably the northernmost coral reef in the world. Surfacing needs a look up first, because at weekends the water overhead is busy with sea-sports traffic, so the ascent is made close to the structure or the shore rather than out in open water.
Background
The Red Sea Star was assembled in 1995: the sections were built in northern Israel, trucked to Eilat, lowered into the water by crane and welded together, then towed about two kilometres to the anchoring point and pinned there on 34 columns driven 15 metres into the seabed. The underwater hall sat 6 metres down, with 62 pressure-resistant panoramic windows and seating for 105. Corals raised in a nursery at 20 metres were later planted around the underwater section, and the seabed here, badly damaged by earlier water pollution, recovered within a few years. Around 2012 the restaurant became a strip bar and stopped trading soon afterwards; it has stood unused since.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows Eilat: Divable all year; Mar–May and Sep–Nov are most comfortable, while July and August are extremely hot on the surface.
Know before you go
- At weekends the surface above the site is busy with sea-sports traffic, so ascend with a look up and surface close to the structure or the shore rather than out in open water.
Sources
- Red Sea Star — Wikipedia (DE)
- The Underwater Restaurant — Scubago
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