SeaLogEgypt · reef
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.
Shaab Bohar Kebir is one of the bigger reefs of the Fury Shoals, the reef complex worked by day boats out of Hamata in Egypt's deep south. It runs east to west and sits immediately alongside the smaller Shaab Bohar Soraya. The two operator descriptions I could read agree on the shape: the reef extends from about 1 m at the top down to around 25 m, and one dive is not enough to get round it. It is normally split into an east dive and a west dive, which is why some lists carry it as Bohar Kebir East and Bohar Kebir West.
On the east side, coral blocks stand on the sand from about 20 m, several of them rising to the surface, soft coral on the blocks and hard coral garden between them and the main reef. The pinnacles hold schools of glassfish. The north side is a sand plateau with small and medium blocks scattered across it. The west side is where the reef wall is cut by indentations, and both descriptions put a school of barracuda in them; TGI Diving adds whitetip reef sharks and eagle rays over the blocks on that side.
Access is by boat from Hamata port. Orca Dive Club at Wadi Lahmy Azur puts the Fury Shoals reefs at 10 to 40 minutes by speedboat and 45 minutes to 2.5 hours by the larger day boats; Regaldive says most of the sites are within an hour of shore and all of them within two. One warning about the map: the position this catalogue holds for Shaab Bohar Kebir is not the reef. The scubago import stacked the whole Hamata site list on top of the resort, so read the pin as an area marker for the Fury Shoals and take the actual reef from your operator's briefing.
On reef condition, HEPCA's Bleach Watch report on the 2024 bleaching event found bleaching rising from north to south along the Egyptian coast, with the Wadi El Gemal sector that covers the Hamata reefs worst affected at 50.1 percent of colonies bleached, against 9 percent at Hurghada. Preliminary 2025 estimates put recovery at 75 to 88 percent depending on species and location. That is a sector figure and not a survey of this reef, so treat it as the regional baseline rather than a reading of Bohar Kebir itself.
Boat only, from Hamata port. Wadi Lahmy Azur's jetty transfer to the port is about ten minutes, and Orca Dive Club rates the Fury Shoals reefs at 10 to 40 minutes by speedboat or 45 minutes to 2.5 hours by the larger day boats. Regaldive puts most of the Hamata sites inside an hour of shore and all of them inside two.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
The Hamata day trips carry a locally paid environmental fee. Regaldive states that an environmental fee applies to all trips with Orca Divers, that it is made up of national park fees plus tax and permissions, that it is paid locally and that it is non-refundable.
Left empty on purpose. Nothing I read gives a season for this reef or for the Fury Shoals specifically. Regaldive's Hamata page says only that winter water is significantly warmer here than in the northern Red Sea and that UK direct flights to the region run November through April, which is a flight schedule and not a diving season, so no months are claimed.
No source I read publishes visibility, temperature or current numbers for this reef, so the honest answer is that the conditions baseline is unmeasured. What the descriptions do establish is a sheltered-feeling reef of moderate depth, blocks on sand, and enough structure that the site is broken into two routes. Regaldive notes only that winter water temperatures in this part of the Egyptian Red Sea run significantly warmer than in the northern Red Sea.
On current: None of the sources I read gives a current figure for Bohar Kebir, and none of the operator descriptions mentions drifting it, so current is genuinely unknown here and worth asking about at the briefing rather than assuming. The one planning constraint the sources are firm about is size rather than water: the reef cannot be circled in a single dive, so the east and the west are planned as separate dives and not linked.
The reef runs from about 1 m at the top down to around 25 m, according to the German Hamata dive guide that describes it. The coral blocks on the east side stand on sand from roughly 20 m and several of them come all the way up to the surface, so most of the dive sits well inside recreational depths.
Because it is too big to circle on one tank. Both descriptions I read say a single dive is not enough to get round the reef, so operators split it into an eastern and a western dive. Some site lists carry those as separate entries, Bohar Kebir East and Bohar Kebir West, which is the same reef and not two reefs.
Coral blocks covered in soft coral on the east side, hard coral garden between the blocks and the main reef, and schools of glassfish around the pinnacles. On the west side the reef is cut by indentations where a school of barracuda sits. TGI Diving also reports whitetip reef sharks and eagle rays over the blocks on that side.
By boat from Hamata port, which is roughly a ten minute transfer from Wadi Lahmy Azur. Orca Dive Club rates the Fury Shoals reefs at 10 to 40 minutes by speedboat or 45 minutes to 2.5 hours by the larger day boats, and Regaldive says most Hamata sites are within an hour of shore and all within two.
Yes, an environmental fee applies. Regaldive states that all trips with Orca Divers out of Hamata carry an environmental fee made up of national park fees plus tax and permissions, that it is paid locally in the destination and that it is not refundable. Check the current amount with the dive centre when you book.
There is no survey of this reef, only a regional one. HEPCA's Bleach Watch report on the 2024 event found the Wadi El Gemal sector that covers the Hamata reefs was the worst affected in Egypt, with up to 50.1 percent of colonies bleached, and put preliminary 2025 recovery at 75 to 88 percent. Read that as a regional baseline rather than a reading of this reef.
No, and it is worth knowing before you plan anything from it. The scubago import this row came from stacked the whole Hamata dive site list on top of the resort rather than on the reefs, so the coordinates are an area marker for the Fury Shoals. Take the actual position of the reef from your operator's briefing.
Animals divers commonly encounter in these waters. This site has no occurrence record of its own yet, so this list comes from the sea it sits in rather than from observations at the pin.
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 small Fury Shoals reef whose east flank is split by crevices packed with anemonefish.
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 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.
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.
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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