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Sharm Salman
Egypt · reef · beginner
5–30 mbeginnerOWboat entry
Sharm Salman
A narrow V-shaped crack in the fringing reef south of Marsa Mubarak, dived along its two walls and rarely visited.
Max depth5–30 m
Required levelbeginner
Entry typeboat
Visibilitynot sourced
The dive
The pin catalogued as Sharm Salman is the inlet Marsa Alam operators call Halg Salmaan, sitting on the coast between Marsa Mubarak about 2 km north and Marsa Shouna about 4 km south. Halg means throat, and that is the shape of it: not a proper marsa but a narrow V-shaped crack in the fringing reef, with a sandy floor at around 36 m in the middle and hard-coral reef walls flanking it to the north and south, cut with caves, overhangs and boulders. SeaHorse Diving Club, which runs it, describes it as relatively undived and normally taken as the second dive of a day whose first tank goes on Marsa Mubarak.
There are two established routes in the inlet and both are wall dives rather than bay dives. Halg Maksour takes the name from the Arabic for broken, and the break is in the reef wall itself, which is cut through with cracks, overhangs and swim-throughs; the features operators pick out are a small deep ravine and one large pinnacle, with giant table corals and fire coral spreading across the shallows above. Halg Hadana means nursery, and the pinnacles there shelter juvenile fish; you reach it across a sandbar that Divers Guide describes as eagle-ray hunting ground, and the pinnacle marks the start of a small lagoon holding big black and twinspot snapper. Between the two, in the middle of the inlet, is a lagoon that spinner dolphins are reported to use in numbers.
The working range is 5 to 30 m and the operator rates the dive easy and open to all levels, with low current. Which wall you get is a weather call rather than a choice: the northern reef is the sheltered one and the southern reef wants calm conditions. The sandy floor at 36 m is the thing to watch, because a wall dive above an inlet that deep will quietly take a careless profile past its plan. The OBIS record around this pin is thin and dominated by rare single sightings, which is consistent with how little the inlet is dived, but it does carry the fire coral, the stonefish and stingfish that match the operator's note about scorpionfish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays, tentacled flathead and leopard torpedo on the sand, and giant moray in the boulders.
- V-shaped inlet walled with hard coral on both sides
- Halg Maksour: reef wall cut with cracks, overhangs and swim-throughs, plus a deep ravine and one large pinnacle
- Halg Hadana: nursery pinnacles reached across a sandbar, with large black and twinspot snapper in the lagoon behind
- Giant table corals in the shallows
- A rarely dived inlet on a coast where most sites are busy
Please note before you go
- Sandy inlet floor at around 36 m directly beneath a dive planned shallower
- Fire coral across the shallow reef top
- Well-camouflaged stonefish, stingfish and scorpionfish on the sand and boulders
- The southern wall is exposed and only workable in calm weather
- Remote inlet with little traffic, so surface cover is your own boat
Access & rules
Mandatory requirementsGetting there
Boat, from Port Ghalib or one of the Marsa Alam centres to the north. SeaHorse Diving Club runs it as the second dive of a day that starts on Marsa Mubarak, roughly 2 km up the coast, and Emperor Divers lists the inlet's two routes, Maksour and Hadana, in its Port Ghalib day-diving programme.
Operator
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Season
No source gives a month range for this inlet. What decides the day is wind, because the southern reef wall is only dived in calm weather while the northern wall is sheltered, so a blown-out day here means half the site rather than none of it.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentlight
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth range5–30 m
Environmentreef
Coralnot sourced
Crowdsquiet
A sheltered narrow inlet with low current, worked along one of the two reef walls between 5 and 30 m. Normally quiet, with no other boats. The northern wall stays workable in most conditions; the southern wall needs a calm day.
On current: SeaHorse Diving Club records the current here as low and Divers Guide as limited to none, and no source describes it as a drift. Wind rather than current is what shapes the dive: the north reef is the sheltered wall and the south reef is the one that needs calm weather, so which side you dive is normally decided on the boat. The real depth trap is the inlet floor at about 36 m sitting directly under a wall dive planned for 30, so set a hard depth alarm rather than trusting the reef to hold you shallow.
Questions & answers
Is Sharm Salman the same place as Halg Salmaan?
Yes. Marsa Alam and Port Ghalib operators write it Halg Salmaan, and the same inlet turns up in listings as Halg Salaman or Shaab Salman. Halg is Arabic for throat, which describes the narrow V-shaped crack in the fringing reef the site is named for. It sits about 2 km south of Marsa Mubarak and about 4 km north of Marsa Shouna.
How deep is Sharm Salman?
The dive is worked between 5 and 30 m along the reef walls, according to the operator that runs it. The inlet itself is deeper than that: the sandy floor in the middle is at around 36 m, and one directory puts the maximum at 35. Because the deep sand sits directly under a wall dive planned for 30, this is a site to run with a firm depth limit.
How do you dive Sharm Salman?
By boat, from Port Ghalib or one of the Marsa Alam centres north of it. SeaHorse Diving Club normally runs it as the second dive of a day whose first tank goes on Marsa Mubarak, two kilometres up the coast. Emperor Divers carries the inlet's two routes, Maksour and Hadana, in its Port Ghalib day-diving programme.
Is Sharm Salman suitable for beginners?
The operator rates it easy and open to all divers, and the current is low, so on paper it is a beginner-friendly wall dive. The caveat is the 36 m sand floor under the inlet and the fact that this is a remote spot with no other traffic, so a newly certified diver should be on a guided profile rather than roaming.
What are Halg Maksour and Halg Hadana?
They are the two established routes inside the same inlet. Maksour, Arabic for broken, follows a reef wall cut through with cracks, overhangs and swim-throughs, with a small deep ravine and one large pinnacle and giant table corals above. Hadana means nursery: its pinnacles shelter juvenile fish, and you cross a sandbar to reach the small lagoon behind them, which holds big black and twinspot snapper.
What will you see at Sharm Salman?
Reef-wall life rather than big animals: scorpionfish in numbers according to the operator, and the OBIS record around this pin adds stonefish and stingfish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays, tentacled flathead and leopard torpedo on the sand, giant moray, titan triggerfish and coronation trout. Fire coral covers a lot of the shallow reef top. Spinner dolphins are reported in the lagoon between the two dive routes and eagle rays over the sandbar at Hadana, but neither is something to expect.
Is there current at Sharm Salman?
Little. The operator records the current as low and no source describes the inlet as a drift dive. Wind matters more than water movement here: the northern reef wall is the sheltered one and the southern wall is only dived in calm weather, so on a rough day you get one side of the inlet rather than the other.
Is Sharm Salman crowded?
No, and that is the most consistent thing said about it. Both the operator page and the dive-log directory describe the inlet as relatively undived, with little diving taking place despite it sitting between two of the busiest bays on this stretch of coast. It normally comes up as an add-on second tank rather than a scheduled destination.
Life recorded at Sharm Salman
60 species within 1.5 km · OBISTaeniura lymmaoccasional · 8 recordsBalistoides viridescensrare · 3 recordsGymnothorax javanicusrare · 3 recordsSynanceia verrucosarare · 1 records
Arothron hispidusoccasional · 5 records
Echeneis naucratesoccasional · 5 records
All 60 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 8 |
| Arothron hispidus | occasional | 5 |
| Echeneis naucrates | occasional | 5 |
| Priacanthus hamrur | rare | 4 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 4 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | rare | 4 |
| Torpedo panthera | rare | 3 |
| Balistoides viridescens | rare | 3 |
| Papilloculiceps longiceps | rare | 3 |
| Mulloidichthys vanicolensis | rare | 3 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | rare | 3 |
| Epibulus insidiator | rare | 3 |
| Tridacna maxima | rare | 3 |
| Variola louti | rare | 3 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | rare | 2 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | rare | 2 |
| Arothron diadematus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon trifascialis | rare | 2 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | rare | 2 |
| Heniochus intermedius | rare | 2 |
| Millepora dichotoma | rare | 2 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 2 |
| Pomacanthus imperator | rare | 2 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | rare | 2 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | rare | 2 |
| Scarus niger | rare | 2 |
| Scolopsis ghanam | rare | 2 |
| Sufflamen albicaudatum | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | rare | 2 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | rare | 2 |
| Cheilio inermis | rare | 2 |
| Pycnochromis dimidiatus | rare | 2 |
| Lutjanus fulviflamma | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | rare | 1 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | rare | 1 |
| Neoniphon sammara | rare | 1 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Platax teira | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon melannotus | rare | 1 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | rare | 1 |
| Myripristis murdjan | rare | 1 |
| Cephalopholis argus | rare | 1 |
| Cephalopholis hemistiktos | rare | 1 |
| Parupeneus cyclostomus | rare | 1 |
| Chromis pembae | rare | 1 |
| Chromis viridis | rare | 1 |
| Corythoichthys flavofasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus trimaculatus | rare | 1 |
| Callyspongia crassa | rare | 1 |
| Amblyeleotris steinitzi | rare | 1 |
| Aluterus scriptus | rare | 1 |
| Hemiramphus far | rare | 1 |
| Synanceia verrucosa | rare | 1 |
| Inimicus filamentosus | rare | 1 |
| Lutjanus ehrenbergii | rare | 1 |
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Port GhalibBeen here? Log it.
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