In 2017, the Royal Jordanian Air Force scuttled a decommissioned C-130 Hercules transport plane in Aqaba's Underwater Military Museum. Now sits intact at 16-20 m, with full superstructure and tail. The most photographed dive in Jordan.
Adjacent to the Aqaba thermal power plant, this site combines a steep reef wall with the warm-water outflow that grows the densest soft-coral cover anywhere in Jordan. Advanced or experienced Open Water; depth profile 18-30 m.
On the Aqaba seafront, the small Saraya building has been a Mamluk way-station, an Ottoman fort, a 1950s cinema, and a heritage museum — each layer visible in the masonry.
If you don't dive, the same reef wall the divers descend is in 1–3 metres of water at the shoreline. Snorkel gear hire on the beach, no boat needed, and Bedouin lunch at the resort café.
Beyond the Aqaba beach hotels is a small but lived-in old town — a daily souk, the Mamluk-era fort on the corniche, and a handful of cafés where the Bedouin coffee is made the slow way.
A 74-metre cargo ship that caught fire in 1982, was towed to Aqaba, and scuttled in 1985 as an artificial reef. Now lies on its port side at 25 m, fully intact superstructure, with two decades of coral growth.
Open Water-friendly, accessible from shore at Tala Bay, 5–18 m depth, and the Aqaba reef wall starts a few metres from the entry point. The reef site Aqaba dive shops use for first-timers and refresher dives.
Established 1997 along the southern Aqaba coast, the Marine Reserve protects 25 km of fringing reef and 30+ dive sites. Most visitors only see it from a boat — the walking tour is better.