Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointing., 7 Oct 2006
If I was judging this book purely on the underwater photographs, I would have no hesitation in awarding a 5 Star rating. Without that standard of photography, the book would not have received any stars at all.
I ordered this book because I needed to know more about certain areas of the Egyptian Red Sea I was due to visit. Since then, I have conducted professional assignments to three different regions and each time I found the book to be of limited value. This is purely a reference book and, with 52 pages devoted to the principle sites of Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Eritrea combined and a full 64 pages devoted to Egypt, I began to wonder about how much original information I would find in this book... The answer was "Not a lot."
The layout is generally very good but, for those photographs that are captioned, descriptions such as "A wave breaking on a healthy reef of stony corals" (Stony Corals. What are they?) or "Divers exploring the wreck of a cruising yacht in the Deep South" (a yacht, incidentally, that is not mentioned anywhere else in the entire book.), left me somewhat bemused.
The book is packed with the sort of information one needs to know. Unfortunately, I soon found myself mistrusting almost everything written. All writers and their publishers have a duty of care towards the reader and it is vitally important that the "general information" on such topics as Culture, Religion, Climate, Visas etc are correct. It is also important that the Diving information is accurate and well-researched. Because this element of the book (and after all, it is a "Diving Guide.") is lacking in so many areas, it brings into question the accuracy of all the information given.
Take for example the Sudanese shipwreck described as the "Labanzo." For the record the correct name is "Levanzo" - a vessel built in 1901 and lost in 1940. The book also contains that perennial favourite the "Sarah H" in Egypt. When this shipwreck was first discovered in the 1970's her true identity was unknown and the finders promptly named her after their own diving guide Sarah Hillel. The ship's real name is, of course, the "Kingston" - something that has been known to Divers with a knowledge of the area for something like 10 years before this book was published...
On the "Up" side, I did find the vast majority of the underwater images to be quite outstanding - almost all of which are by Alex Misiewicz - whose work I have long admired. Sadly, many of the surface shots appear to be very old and out-of date and the only photograph attributed to the author is one of a camel...
This book has the potential to be an excellent guide but somebody needs to go back to the proof reading stage, remove the glaring errors, double check all the facts and update the surface photography before we can put our faith into this product. As I said "Very Disappointing."
NM
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2 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, and useful., 12 Feb 2004
In contrast to a previous reviewer, I found this title to be both enjoyable and very helpful. I must point out first though, that I have the revised version (2002), where some minor errors have been corrected.The presentation of this is simple and effective, with the Red Sea coastline being seperated into both countries and regions. The regional sections start by explaining general details about the local area, including people, customs, seasonal conditions (in and above water) and extra info such as special highlights. Whilst the maps are a little basic, the accompanying descriptions of significant reefs, wrecks or points of interest is both useful and detailed, especialy for the Red Sea novice. The information includes both access/accessability & swell/current conditions, suitability ratings for both scuba & snorkelling, visabilty & depth ratings etc. This is followed by text describing the site and points of interest/common sealife. For the record, in this revised edition, the spelling mistake of 'Labanzo' has been corrected to 'Levanzo', and the 'Sarah H' is now referred to as the 'Kingston'. It might have been a better idea to refer to this wreck by both names though, rather than one or the other. One point on which I would agree though is the photography - it ranges from good to outstanding. Some of the marine life captured here is magnificent. I found this a useful and enjoyable guide, and would reccomend it without hesitation. Mind you, I would like to see a larger, revised edition, perhaps with more detailed mapping (and how about satellite images & GPS waypoints?) and an expanded wildlife section, with more of the fine photography!
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