Shaab Rahma

The dive

Shaab Rahma sits on the coast between Safaga and El Quseir, and it is a shore dive with a structure rather than a reef with a swim. Access is by minibus to the shore and then on foot over the reef top, and descriptions consistently mention a rope to help with the entry and exit because current can run at the shoreline.

The site is a labyrinth of canyons and tunnels through a very jagged reef, with coral gardens on either side. One documented route runs a tunnel of roughly 80 m that ends through a hole at about 7 m in a coral garden; another is a 30 m tunnel with a transit of around four minutes, in which current can be present, opening onto soft corals and boulders. Other entries go through a hole in the reef top and into a canyon. That is real overhead environment, not a swim-through you can stand up in, and the honest reading of the site is that the tunnels are the reason to come and the reason to be careful.

Outside the tunnel system the ground is straightforward: coral garden on both sides to about 15 m, a sandy bottom sloping gradually to 40 m with coral gardens flanking it to 30 m, coral blocks scattered between 10 and 40 m, and a good table-coral garden to the south. One account describes the corals dropping over a shallow slope to about 25 m, with small caves, passages and breakthroughs and sand eels on the flats. We record the wide 10-40 m band because that is what the sources give, and note that the deep end is sand.

OBIS holds no occurrence records at all for this position, so we have nothing to say about the fauna beyond what the site descriptions mention. That is an absence of survey effort on a shore site, not an absence of fish.

• A tunnel and canyon system, including a roughly 80 m tunnel ending through a hole at 7 m
• A 30 m tunnel with a transit of about four minutes, current sometimes running through it
• Shore dive: minibus to the coast, then in on foot over the reef top
• A rope helps with entry and exit because of current
• Coral garden to about 15 m, sand sloping to 40 m, table corals to the south

Conditions

Shore entry over the reef top with current at the shoreline, usually taken with a rope. Below it a labyrinth of canyons and tunnels through a jagged reef, coral garden to about 15 m either side, coral blocks between 10 and 40 m, and sand sloping gradually to 40 m. No published visibility figure, so none is recorded.

On current: Current runs at the shoreline strongly enough that descriptions recommend a rope for the entry and exit, and it can also be present inside the 30 m tunnel. Depth figures differ by which part of the site is described: coral garden to about 15 m, a shallow slope to about 25 m in one account, coral blocks from 10 to 40 m and a sandy bottom sloping to 40 m in another. We record 40 m as the maximum and note that the deep end is sand, not the plan. No source publishes a visibility figure, so none is recorded.

Dives & underwater footage

Marine life you can see at Shaab Rahma

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.