Reef platform is more than 5000 years, and extend along about 2,000 km (1240 miles) of coastline. Most consist mainly of branching corals from the genera Acropora and Porites.
Some fringing reef system grew directly from the shoreline (see photo, left).
In such cases, more active coral reef grows from the face are connected to shore by a very shallow reef flat contains scattered small colonies of living coral.
In other areas fringing reef system is getting rather far from the beach, and attach a well-developed protected back reef zone (lagoons), complete with coral patches, seagrass, and mangrove.
Many offshore islands are surrounded by tiny little coral reefs are present in some areas. Red Sea also contains many offshore coral reefs against the classical categorization of types of coral.
Included in this category, capturing all is a ring-like coral atolls, coral mountains sweep the sudden rise of a fairly large depth on both sides, and the pattern of typical reef complex odd shape (see photo, left: Courtesy of NASA).
Like the Red Sea coral reef formations that are almost certainly the result of active force and unusual tectonic who has worked here for thousands of years and continue today.
There are some true atoll in the Red Sea (some off the coast of Sudan), but there is no true coral reef barrier.
Red Sea coral reefs have developed unusually high tolerance to extreme temperatures, salinity, and turbidity occasionally (which is caused by large seasonal dust storms) that occur in the region. Conditions that would kill or severely damage most hard corals are found in other parts of the Indo-Pacific region or in the Caribbean.
Water clarity is exceptional because of the lack of river discharge and low rainfall did not lead to dissipation of the suspension and fine sediments such as those found in many other parts of the tropical oceans of the land border.
Red Sea coral reefs are particularly well developed in northern and central parts (off the coast of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan), a large complex with a large coral reef offshore contains many islands, fringing reefs, and coral reef habitats (see photo , above).
Farther south, a little coral growth is inhibited by the inclusion of nutrient laden water where the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea. This surface water is more southern regions are also subject to much greater mixing with more water caused by strong winds coming from a high mountainous coast.
In general, marine biota of the Red Sea coral reefs are characterized by high endemism. For example, from 1200 or more species of coral reef fish are recorded, about 10% are endemic (found nowhere else).
About 300 species of hard corals have been recorded from the Red Sea as a whole. Egypt beach itself supports some 200 species of reef building owned nearly 50 genera. This represents about four times the diversity of hard corals are found on Caribbean reefs, and coral diversity comparable to that found in the Maldives and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
However, biodiversity is not the Red Sea coral reefs rivals that the richest part of the Indo-Pacific region
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