SeaLog
Getting there
The site lies on the fringing reef about a kilometre north of Marsa Shagra bay. No source states whether it is dived from shore, by zodiac or by day boat, so we do not claim an entry type.
Habiba Wall
Egypt · reef
MEDIA5 items
Habiba Wall
A named wall on the reef just north of Marsa Shagra that operators run regularly and nobody publishes numbers for.
The dive
Habiba Wall sits on the fringing reef roughly a kilometre north of Marsa Shagra bay, on the stretch of coast between Marsa Alam town and Abu Dabbab. It appears in Reef Oasis Dive Club's list of the Marsa Alam sites it runs, alongside Elphinstone, Marsa Assalaya, Abu Dabab, Shaab Marsa Alam and Shaab Samadai, so it is a working site rather than a catalogue artefact.
It is also one of the least documented. No operator page we could find publishes a depth range, an entry type, a difficulty rating, a current figure or a visibility figure for Habiba Wall specifically. Rather than borrow the numbers from Marsa Shagra next door - which would be inventing a site - we leave every one of those fields empty. The name is the only structural claim we are prepared to repeat: it is described as a wall.
What we do have is our own occurrence record, and it is a good one. Sixty taxa with solid counts, headed by blue-spotted ribbontail ray, then sailfin tang, masked pufferfish, common lionfish, coral hind, daisy parrotfish, sohal surgeonfish, blackside hawkfish, peacock hind, Picasso triggerfish, two-band anemonefish and giant moray. That is a dense, entirely ordinary northern Red Sea reef community - the same cast the Marsa Shagra record produces - which tells you the reef here is in normal working order even though nobody has written the dive up.
- On the fringing reef about 1 km north of Marsa Shagra bay
- Run regularly by Marsa Alam operators, listed with the major sites
- Dense, ordinary northern Red Sea reef community in the occurrence record
- No published depth, entry, current or visibility data - the gaps here are real
Please note before you go
- A wall dive with no published maximum depth - set your own hard limit, because the reef will not
- No published current or surface-condition data for this site; the briefing has to come from the operator running it
Access & rules
Season
No seasonal data is published for this site, so no best-season claim is made.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentnot sourced
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth rangenot sourced
Environmentreef
Coralrecovering
Crowdsnot sourced
Not documented. No operator publishes conditions for Habiba Wall specifically, and the neighbouring Marsa Shagra figures describe a sheltered bay rather than an exposed fringing wall, so they do not transfer. Assume the general pattern of this coast - warm water, generally good visibility, wind-driven surface conditions - and take the actual numbers from your operator.
On current: We found no source publishing depth, current, visibility, surge or difficulty for Habiba Wall. Marsa Shagra's figures are about a kilometre away and belong to a different bay, so we have not copied them across. Every numeric field on this page is deliberately empty.
Dives & underwater footage
Questions & answers
How deep is Habiba Wall?
No source publishes a depth range for this site, so we record none. It is described as a wall, which means the reef itself will not give you a turnaround depth - set a hard maximum before you get in and take the profile from your operator's briefing.
Where is Habiba Wall?
On the fringing reef about a kilometre north of Marsa Shagra bay, on the coast between Marsa Alam town and Abu Dabbab. No source states whether it is dived from shore, by zodiac or by day boat.
Is Habiba Wall a real dive site or a duplicate?
It is real and it is dived: Reef Oasis Dive Club lists it among the Marsa Alam sites it runs, alongside Elphinstone, Abu Dabab, Shaab Marsa Alam and Shaab Samadai. It is simply badly documented - no operator we could find publishes conditions or depths for it.
What will I see at Habiba Wall?
Our occurrence record for the position covers 60 taxa of dense, entirely ordinary northern Red Sea reef fauna: blue-spotted ribbontail ray, sailfin tang, masked pufferfish, lionfish, coral hind, daisy parrotfish, sohal surgeonfish, Picasso triggerfish, two-band anemonefish, giant moray.
What are the conditions at Habiba Wall?
Unknown, and we have deliberately not filled the gap. Marsa Shagra's published figures are a kilometre away and describe a sheltered bay rather than an exposed wall, so copying them across would have described a site that does not exist.
Can you snorkel Habiba Wall?
No source describes it as a snorkelling site and we have no shallow-water profile or entry description for it. Marsa Shagra's bay, a kilometre south, is the documented snorkelling option on this stretch.
Life recorded at Habiba Wall
60 species within 1.5 km · OBISTaeniura lymmaoccasional · 45 recordsGymnothorax javanicusoccasional · 18 recordsBalistoides viridescensoccasional · 16 recordsHexabranchus sanguineusoccasional · 12 records
Zebrasoma desjardiniioccasional · 25 records
Pterois milesoccasional · 24 records
All 60 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 45 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | occasional | 25 |
| Pterois miles | occasional | 24 |
| Cephalopholis miniata | occasional | 24 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 24 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | occasional | 23 |
| Acanthurus sohal | occasional | 22 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 21 |
| Cephalopholis argus | occasional | 21 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 19 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | occasional | 18 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | occasional | 18 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | occasional | 17 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | occasional | 17 |
| Arothron hispidus | occasional | 17 |
| Balistoides viridescens | occasional | 16 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | occasional | 16 |
| Monotaxis grandoculis | occasional | 16 |
| Naso unicornis | occasional | 16 |
| Callyspongia crassa | occasional | 15 |
| Coenobita scaevola | occasional | 15 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 14 |
| Rastrelliger kanagurta | occasional | 14 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | occasional | 14 |
| Corythoichthys flavofasciatus | occasional | 14 |
| Naso elegans | occasional | 14 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | occasional | 13 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | occasional | 13 |
| Dardanus tinctor | occasional | 13 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | occasional | 13 |
| Epinephelus tauvina | occasional | 13 |
| Flavocaranx bajad | occasional | 13 |
| Tridacna maxima | occasional | 13 |
| Coris aygula | occasional | 13 |
| Priacanthus hamrur | occasional | 13 |
| Balistapus undulatus | occasional | 13 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | occasional | 13 |
| Hexabranchus sanguineus | occasional | 12 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | occasional | 12 |
| Ostracion cyanurus | occasional | 12 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | occasional | 11 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | occasional | 11 |
| Scolopsis ghanam | occasional | 11 |
| Cheilio inermis | occasional | 11 |
| Diploprion drachi | occasional | 11 |
| Fistularia commersonii | occasional | 11 |
| Macolor niger | occasional | 11 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | occasional | 11 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | occasional | 11 |
| Diodon hystrix | occasional | 10 |
| Variola louti | occasional | 10 |
| Epibulus insidiator | occasional | 10 |
| Nembrotha megalocera | occasional | 10 |
| Bodianus anthioides | occasional | 10 |
| Papilloculiceps longiceps | occasional | 10 |
| Arothron stellatus | occasional | 10 |
| Myripristis murdjan | occasional | 9 |
| Torpedo panthera | occasional | 9 |
| Parupeneus cyclostomus | occasional | 9 |
| Epinephelus fasciatus | occasional | 9 |
Nearby sites in Marsa Alam
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Abu Nawas Garden1.8 km
Marsa AlamA shallow coral garden on the fringing reef in front of the Abo Nawas resort, dived from its jetty or drifted from a speedboat out of Gabal el Rosas.
Queen Wall3.7 km
Marsa AlamNemo City Gabal El Rosas4.8 km
Marsa AlamThe outer northern reef at the mouth of Marsa Gabal el Rosas, named for the anemone colony on its 22 m plateau.
Marsa Gabal el Rosas (Ducks center)5.6 km
Marsa AlamA narrow U-shaped bay 11 km from Marsa Alam, walked into from the beach, that stays divable when the wind shuts everything else.
Om halhalla8.1 km
Marsa AlamA shallow drift past a field of pinnacles that dive guides call an aquarium - and do not offer to snorkellers.
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