SeaLogEgypt · reef · intermediate
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.
Shaab Hamam sits in the western Fury Shoals, inshore of the Abu Galawa group and about 4 km northwest of Abu Galawa Soraya. OpenStreetMap maps a chain of small unnamed reef patches running northwest to southeast within a kilometre of the pin, which matches the way the site is described: not one big reef but several small ones with water between them. Emperor Divers, which dives it from its Daedalus, Fury Shoals and Elphinstone liveaboard route out of Port Ghalib, calls it Sha'ab Hamam and gives it the nickname Stairway to Heaven, and files it explicitly among the less dived sites the boat visits when there is time left over after Sha'ab Claude, Malahi, Abu Galawa Soraya and Sataya. That is the honest position of this reef in the region: real, named, on itineraries, and thinly written about.
The one substantive description available splits the site into two zones, a canyon and a coral garden, with a row of pinnacles running north to south. Swimming through what it calls the saddle brings you to the arch, which is the site's known feature, framed by black coral. The same source puts the maximum depth at more than 40 m on the east side of the reef and reports whitetip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and barracuda. Treat the 40 m as a warning rather than a plan: the shallow reef structure and the swim-through are the dive, and the east side is where the bottom falls away.
We are deliberately not repeating the fish lists and depth numbers that dive-site directories publish for this pin. OBIS holds a single record within 1.9 km of it, a squaretail coralgrouper, which means almost nobody has submitted survey data here rather than that the reef is empty. If you want a confident species list for Shaab Hamam, get it from the guide on the boat.
Liveaboard only. Emperor Divers reaches it on its Daedalus, Fury Shoals and Elphinstone itinerary sailing from Port Ghalib; other Fury Shoals routes leave from Marsa Ghalib or Hamata. Only a small number of boats list the site at all, which is consistent with the operator calling it one of the less dived reefs in the group.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Emperor Divers runs its Fury Shoals routes across the year and picks sites day by day according to conditions, so access is a weather question rather than a calendar one. One liveaboard booking source gives July to October as the best window, when it puts the average temperature at 27 C, but that is a single undated claim and no operator confirms it, so no month list has been recorded.
A liveaboard stop in the western Fury Shoals, dived when the itinerary and the weather allow. The single dive-site description available reports visibility up to 30 m and water between 20 C in winter and 29 C in summer for this part of the coast. Nothing site-specific is published on current or surge, so nothing is recorded here.
On current: No source publishes a current for this reef. Emperor Divers treats the Fury Shoals sites as weather-dependent choices made day by day, and describes several of the outer reefs in the group as moorable only when the weather is kind. Assume a briefed drift or a moored dive depending on the day, and ask on the boat.
It is in the western Fury Shoals off the far south Egyptian coast, inshore of the Abu Galawa reefs and about 4 km northwest of Abu Galawa Soraya. Access is by liveaboard only: Emperor Divers dives it on its Daedalus, Fury Shoals and Elphinstone route sailing from Port Ghalib, and other Fury Shoals itineraries leave from Marsa Ghalib or Hamata. There is no shore or day-boat access.
The nickname is used by Emperor Divers alongside the site name on its Fury Shoals itinerary, and it refers to the reef's structure rather than to a single staircase. Descriptions of the site put a row of pinnacles running north to south, with a canyon at one end and a coral garden at the other, and a passage called the saddle that leads to an arch framed by black coral.
The dive itself is on the shallow reef structure, but the one published figure puts the maximum depth at more than 40 m on the east side of the reef. Directories circulate a much shallower maximum for this pin; we have not repeated it, because understating depth on a reef that falls away on one side is the dangerous direction. Take the profile from the boat's briefing.
It is described as a novice-level site by the one booking source that rates it, and the structure is shallow, but two things argue for a bit more experience: the named feature is a swim-through, and the reef drops past 40 m on its east side. It is also a liveaboard site with no easy exit, so it depends more on the guide's assessment than on a rating.
Honestly, we cannot tell you with confidence. OBIS holds one single record within 1.9 km of this pin, a squaretail coralgrouper, which means the reef has barely been surveyed rather than that it is bare. The one site description available names whitetip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and barracuda. The boat's guide is a better source than anything published for this reef.
Because it is genuinely a secondary stop. Emperor Divers lists it among the less dived sites its boats visit after the Fury Shoals classics, Sha'ab Claude, Malahi, Abu Galawa Soraya and Sataya, and only a handful of liveaboards list it at all. No dive centre, no marine-park page and no published dive guide carries a description of it, so most of what circulates online is one catalogue entry copied around.
There is no reliable seasonal answer for this specific reef. Liveaboards run the Fury Shoals across the year and choose sites day by day according to the weather, so whether you get Shaab Hamam depends on conditions and on how much time the boat has after the main sites. One booking source suggests July to October, but no operator confirms that, so we have not recorded a month list.
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 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 small Fury Shoals reef whose northern end is a field of coral pinnacles rising to the surface, usually dived as a zodiac drift.
A small Fury Shoals reef whose east flank is split by crevices packed with anemonefish.
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.
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.
The small reef opposite Shaab Bohar Kebir in the northern Fury Shoals: coral blocks and outlying pinnacles you can lap in about fifty minutes.
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