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Shaab Sakara
Egypt · reef · beginner
0–20 mbeginnerOWboat entry
Shaab Sakara
The shallow hard-coral reef Orca opens its Hamata boat programme with — 20 m at most, and divable in weather that closes the rest of the group.
Max depth0–20 m
Required levelbeginner
Entry typeboat
Visibilitynot sourced
The dive
Shaab Sakara is one of the reefs Orca Dive Club runs from Wadi Lahmy into the Fury Shoals, and the operator's description of it is short and specific: the first, fairly shallow site on its list, approachable in any weather, suitable even for inexperienced divers, with distinctive hard corals and a maximum depth of 20 m. Everything on this page rests on that single operator description. Nobody else we could find publishes a route, a profile or a species list for this reef.
What that description tells you is mostly about weather. Fury Shoals diving out of Hamata is an offshore boat programme, and most of it depends on a flat sea; a site an operator will run in any weather is the one that keeps the day alive when the swell is up. Paired with 20 m and hard coral, that puts Shaab Sakara in the same job as the shallow sheltered reefs at the top of any Egyptian day-boat list: a first dive, a check dive, a course dive, and the fallback when the good stuff is unworkable.
Two things this page deliberately does not do. It does not give you a species list: Orca names habitat and not animals, and the occurrence records our catalogue attaches to this pin were gathered on the Wadi Lahmy resort shoreline rather than at the reef, because the whole Hamata cluster was imported with coordinates stacked on the coast. And it does not give you a real position — we could not find one. Treat the pin as an area marker for the Fury Shoals out of Hamata, and take the actual location from your operator's briefing.
- Maximum 20 m, with hard coral the operator singles out
- Runs in weather that closes the more exposed Fury Shoals reefs
- Graded by the operator as suitable even for inexperienced divers
Access & rules
Mandatory requirementsGetting there
Boat only, from Hamata port. Orca Dive Club runs the Fury Shoals from its base at the Wadi Lahmy Azur resort, ten minutes from the port, on day boats of 45 minutes to 2.5 hours or speedboats of 10 to 40 minutes. The catalogue coordinate for this pin is not the reef: the whole Hamata cluster in this catalogue was imported with coordinates stacked on the Wadi Lahmy shoreline, and we could not find a published position for Shaab Sakara to replace it with.
Operator
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Season
Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the windows Euro-Divers rates best for the southern Red Sea, with the water between about 22 C and 30 C across the year and the calmest seas in the shoulder months. This is regional, not measured at this reef — and Shaab Sakara is precisely the site that matters least to the season, since the operator runs it in weather the others cannot take.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentnot sourced
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth range0–20 m
Environmentreef
Coralrecovering
Crowdsnot sourced
An offshore day-boat reef out of Hamata, dived inside 20 m over hard coral, with the boat moored on the sheltered side. Regionally the southern Red Sea runs about 22 C in winter to 30 C in summer, with visibility often over 20 to 30 m in the calmer months.
On current: No source publishes a current or visibility figure for Shaab Sakara. Orca Dive Club's one line about conditions is that the site can be approached in any weather, which is the useful fact: it is the reef that stays workable in the sea states that close the more exposed Fury Shoals sites. Wikivoyage notes the prevailing current across the group runs from the north-east, which is why boats moor on the south or south-west side of these reefs.
Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov
Questions & answers
How deep is Shaab Sakara?
Orca Dive Club gives a maximum of 20 m and calls the site fairly shallow. That is the only depth figure published anywhere we could find for this reef, so it is a single-source number rather than a consensus. It keeps the dive inside standard Open Water limits.
How do you get to Shaab Sakara?
Boat only, out of Hamata port in Egypt's far south. Orca Dive Club runs it from its base at the Wadi Lahmy Azur resort, ten minutes from the port, using day boats that take 45 minutes to 2.5 hours to the Fury Shoals or speedboats that take 10 to 40 minutes.
Is Shaab Sakara good for beginners?
Yes, by the operator's own grading. Orca describes it as suitable even for inexperienced divers, with a 20 m maximum and no route features that demand experience. The offshore boat run is the only part that asks anything of you, and that is the guide's problem rather than yours.
Can Shaab Sakara be dived in rough weather?
That is its selling point. Orca says the site can be approached in any weather, which in a Fury Shoals programme means it is the reef that stays workable when swell closes the exposed ones. If your boat day gets rearranged because of sea state, this is the kind of site you end up on.
What will I see at Shaab Sakara?
We will not publish a species list, because we do not have one from the right place. Orca describes distinctive hard corals and rich biodiversity but names no species, and the occurrence records attached to our pin were collected on the coast rather than at the reef. Take the briefing from your guide instead.
Why does this site have so little written about it?
Because only one operator publishes anything on it. Shaab Sakara appears on Orca Dive Club's Wadi Lahmy site list with a two-line description and nowhere else we could find, including the German Wikivoyage article that maps the Fury Shoals reef by reef. The confidence score on this page reflects that.
Life recorded at Shaab Sakara
49 species within 4.46 km · OBISCheilinus undulatusrare · 1 recordsBalistoides viridescensrare · 1 recordsGymnothorax javanicusrare · 1 records
Ocypode saratanrare · 4 records
Cephalopholis hemistiktosrare · 4 records
Scarus frenatusrare · 4 records
All 49 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Ocypode saratan | rare | 4 |
| Cephalopholis hemistiktos | rare | 4 |
| Scarus frenatus | rare | 4 |
| Chromis flavaxilla | rare | 3 |
| Hemigymnus melapterus | rare | 3 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | rare | 2 |
| Hemigymnus sexfasciatus | rare | 2 |
| Austruca albimana | rare | 2 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 2 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | rare | 2 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon trifascialis | rare | 2 |
| Labroides dimidiatus | rare | 2 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | rare | 2 |
| Chromis viridis | rare | 2 |
| Pseudochromis fridmani | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon auriga | rare | 1 |
| Amblyglyphidodon flavilatus | rare | 1 |
| Cheilinus undulatus | rare | 1 |
| Coris aygula | rare | 1 |
| Stethojulis albovittata | rare | 1 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | rare | 1 |
| Cryptocentrus caeruleopunctatus | rare | 1 |
| Gobiodon citrinus | rare | 1 |
| Acanthurus gahhm | rare | 1 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | rare | 1 |
| Balistoides viridescens | rare | 1 |
| Pseudobalistes fuscus | rare | 1 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | rare | 1 |
| Caesio striata | rare | 1 |
| Oxymonacanthus halli | rare | 1 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | rare | 1 |
| Parupeneus macronemus | rare | 1 |
| Cheilinus quinquecinctus | rare | 1 |
| Himantura uarnak | rare | 1 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Crella (Grayella) cyathophora | rare | 1 |
| Thelenota ananas | rare | 1 |
| Lambis truncata | rare | 1 |
| Centropyge multispinis | rare | 1 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | rare | 1 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | rare | 1 |
| Fromia ghardaqana | rare | 1 |
| Malea pomum | rare | 1 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | rare | 1 |
| Epinephelus fuscoguttatus | rare | 1 |
| Plectropomus areolatus | rare | 1 |
| Terapon jarbua | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon larvatus | rare | 1 |
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