Shaab El Erg

The dive

Shaab El Erg is the horseshoe of reef lying offshore between Hurghada and El Gouna, and this pin is the reef itself rather than any one dive on it. PADI publishes these exact coordinates against an entry whose entire description is that the place is a large horseshoe-shaped reef with several different spots to dive, which is the honest reading of the row: a reef carrying a handful of named moorings, each dived as its own dive. Red Sea Life describes the same structure as lagoon areas, sandy plateaus, coral gardens and scattered coral blocks, which is what gives it so many possible routes.

The arms of the horseshoe close around a shallow sandy lagoon, and that lagoon is Dolphin House. Blue Corner Red Sea reads the reef as three areas: the lagoon at 8 to 12 m, with small coral blocks and the ergs the reef is named after standing on the sand; Manta Point on the outside of the northern end; and the lighthouse and southern reef, where a gentle slope turns into a drop-off. Poseidon Garden sits inside the southern part of the same circle, its mooring on sand at about 11 m with the dive capped around 13 m, which is why the corals there are shallow and large. Our catalogue carries Dolphin House, Manta Point and Poseidon Reef as their own pins within three and a half kilometres of this one, and the detail of each dive belongs on those pages.

There is no shore access to any part of the reef. DiveRED put it at roughly ninety minutes by boat from Hurghada; Divers Guide give forty-five minutes from El Gouna, the shorter run and the one most El Gouna day boats make. Once you are there, depth is a function of which mooring the boat takes rather than of the reef: the lagoon and Poseidon's garden are shallow enough that the dive stays in natural light throughout, while the outer walls and pinnacles run to about 25 m and DiveRED work the site to 28. Both DiveRED and Divers Guide describe the current as mild or limited and grade the site for beginners or all levels; Divers Guide put average visibility at 20 m in a 10 to 30 m range.

The dolphins are why the reef is busy, and how you behave around them is regulated rather than suggested. HEPCA names Shaab El Erg, with Fanous and Abu Nugar, as an area dolphins use mainly to rest, and its code of conduct is mandatory in the Red Sea Governorate with breaches punishable by law and a fine: 30 m minimum clearance, four knots or the speed of the slowest animal, no herding, chasing, encircling or separating a group, and never following dolphins into a lagoon or resting area. Which dolphins they are is less settled than the rules. Blue Corner Red Sea calls the residents Indo-Pacific bottlenose; DiveRED describe a resident spinner pod; our own Dolphin House page follows the Red Sea Dolphin Project in treating the Hurghada residents as Indo-Pacific bottlenose. Manta rays are separate and seasonal: Divers Guide put them on the reef mainly in February and March, which is where the name Manta Point comes from.

• A horseshoe of reef with a sheltered sandy lagoon inside it and several separately named moorings
• Dolphin House, the lagoon, where a resident pod rests during the day
• Manta Point on the outside of the northern end, with mantas mainly in February and March
• Poseidon Garden in the southern part of the circle, capped around 13 m so the corals are shallow and large
• Outer walls and pinnacles running to about 25 m for a deeper route on the same reef

Conditions

A normal day is a flat-to-moderate boat run of forty-five minutes from El Gouna or about ninety from Hurghada, mild or no current on the reef, visibility around 20 m and water between 21 and 29 C depending on the season. The lagoon is sheltered by the reef arms; the outer walls and pinnacles are more open. Several boats work the reef at the same time, and the dolphin encounter, if it happens, is at the boat's discretion and on the animals' terms.

On current: Sources agree this is not a current dive: DiveRED call it mild, Divers Guide limited, and neither publishes a figure. Depth is the number that varies, because the sources are describing different moorings on the same reef. Blue Corner Red Sea put the inner lagoon at 8 to 12 m and the outer walls and pinnacles at about 25 m; Dive Trek cap Poseidon Garden at roughly 13 m over sand at about 11 m; DiveRED work the site to 28 m and PADI's own entry gives 25 m. We record 25 m as the conservative reading of the outer reef and 5 m as the shallow ground, but the honest answer is that the boat's choice of mooring decides your profile. Visibility is Divers Guide's 20 m average from a 10 to 30 m range; DiveRED also quote 20 m. Water temperature runs 21 to 29 C over the year per DiveRED, and Divers Guide's own logs record 20 to 23 C in January and August.