Ras Mohamed – the “Head of Mohamed” – is the first National Park of Egypt protected by environmental law, and reefs in the park contain up to 150 different species of coral. Coral is a living organism that produces a skeleton under the right conditions of warm water and depths of 20m., the coral then thrives and produces coral reefs. Coral grows slowly 0.3-3.5 centimeters per year under optimum conditions. The is fronted by the shallow (95m) Gulf of Suez to the west and the deep (800 m max.) Gulf of Aqaba to the east. The park contains marine fossils ranging from 20 million to 75,000 years of age, including representatives of all the fish species found in the Red Sea and a strand of the Mangrove “Avicennia Marina”. These trees represent the second most northerly Mangrove strain in the Indian Ocean – Red Sea complex. Mangroves live in salt or brackish water and their root system removes salt from the water entering the trees’ vascular system. Mangroves stabilize the coastline by retaining sediments. Terrestrial habitats contain a large number of different animals and plants including the desert fox, Fennec, Ibex, Gazelle, Hyena, Hydrax, and small rodent species. More visible are the birds, both resident and migrating. The migrating birds include the White Stork “Ciconia Ciconia” and the Black Stork “Ciconia Nigra”, and large numbers of Raptors such as Falcons, Buzzards, and Kites follow these migrations.