SeaLogEgypt · reef · intermediate
A small Fury Shoals reef whose east flank is split by crevices packed with anemonefish.
Habili Sama is a small reef in the Fury Shoals grounds worked out of Hamata, and it appears in divers' records under three further names: Habili B, Anemone City, and plain Sama. The dive base at Wadi Lahmy Azur gives it 20 m and describes a reef whose east side is broken through by a run of narrow clefts and small canyons, with an enormous number of anemonefish living in them. Away from those clefts the site is coral blocks, thickly grown over with soft corals and gorgonians.
The east-side split is the dive, and it is why the reef picked up the Anemone City name. Everything published about the site points at the same two things: the density of anemones and their fish in the broken ground, and the soft coral and sea fan cover on the blocks around it. Nobody publishes a shark or pelagic list for this reef, which is consistent with a small, shallow, sheltered structure rather than a drop-off.
It is a boat dive, listed with a short run out from the Hamata boats. The dive base plots the reef at 24.2760 N, 35.5329 E, which is roughly 11 km east of the position this catalogue currently holds; the catalogue coordinate sits on the resort, not on the reef. No source gives a current reading, a visibility figure or a season for the site, and none is guessed here.
Boat only, from the Hamata boats used by the Wadi Lahmy bases; a diver atlas records the run as under 30 minutes. The dive base's own map puts the reef at 24.2760 N, 35.5329 E. The coordinate held in this catalogue is about 11 km west of that, stacked on the Wadi Lahmy Azur resort along with the rest of the same import, and should be corrected to the operator position.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
No source gives a season for this reef. It is a small, sheltered structure with a short run out, so it is less weather-dependent than the exposed offshore ergs in the same programme, but that is a comparison rather than a measurement.
A short boat run to a small reef, dived as a circuit rather than a drift. No published source gives visibility or current for this site specifically. The tour operator selling this diving area describes it as one of the least frequented in Egypt, visited only sporadically by the large liveaboards.
On current: No source reports current at this reef. The two depth figures in circulation are close but not identical: the dive base gives 20 m, a diver atlas records a maximum of 22 m with an average of 15 m. This page takes the operator's 20 m.
The dive base that runs it gives the reef 20 m. A diver atlas records a 22 m maximum with an average working depth of about 15 m. Either way it sits inside normal recreational limits and does not need a deep qualification.
The east side of the reef is broken through by narrow clefts and small canyons, and the dive base describes an enormous number of anemonefish living in them. The reef is recorded under four names in all: Habili Sama, Habili B, Sama and Anemone City.
By boat from Hamata, using the day boats and speedboats run by the bases at Wadi Lahmy. A diver atlas records the run as under 30 minutes. The dive base's own map puts the reef at 24.2760 N, 35.5329 E, which is about 11 km east of the coordinate this catalogue currently holds.
It is a small reef at 20 m with no wall, no overhead and no reported current, which makes it an easy layout to dive as a circuit. A diver atlas nonetheless puts the experience level at CMAS two-star or Advanced Open Water, so a new diver should go with a guide rather than treat it as a self-led dive.
Anemones and anemonefish in quantity in the clefts on the east side, and coral blocks covered in soft corals and gorgonians elsewhere on the reef. No source publishes a shark or pelagic list for this site, so treat it as a reef and macro dive rather than a big-animal one.
Nothing published says any part of this reef reaches the surface, and every source treats it as a boat dive. Boats in this area do carry snorkellers, but ask the operator on the day rather than booking the site as a snorkel stop.
It should be quiet. The tour operator selling this stretch of coast describes the Hamata and Wadi Lahmy grounds as among the least frequented in Egypt and only sporadically visited by the large liveaboards, and this reef is a local base site rather than a fixture on the standard safari route.
A small Fury Shoals reef whose northern end is a field of coral pinnacles rising to the surface, usually dived as a zodiac drift.
The small reef opposite Shaab Bohar Kebir in the northern Fury Shoals: coral blocks and outlying pinnacles you can lap in about fifty minutes.
A large east-west reef in the northern Fury Shoals, too big to get round on one tank, so it is run as an east dive and a west dive.
One of the reefs in Fury Shoals that liveaboards go to when they have spare time, built around a coral arch reached through a saddle in the reef.
The first Fury Shoals reef out of Hamata: a main body split by a canyon, a fast-dropping east side, and a north plateau you only get on a calm day.
A ring reef in the Fury Shoals with a coral garden inside it, a channel you swim through between coral walls, and a small American sailing yacht sunk in 1980 that the reef has taken over.
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