SeaLogEgypt · reef
The largest of the four Qulaan islands off Hamata: a white-sand island inside a national park, snorkelled far more often than it is dived.
Siyle is the spelling this catalogue inherited for Siyal, also written Siyul, the largest of the four islands of the Qulaan archipelago off Hamata. The group runs offshore from the Hamata mangrove coast, between 3 and 7 km out, and sits inside Wadi El Gemal National Park along with Shawarit, Umm al-Shaykh and Mahabis and a fifth sandbank that only appears at high tide. Siyal is the one with the long white beach, and it is the island that day boats stop at.
Be clear about what is and is not documented here. The island is well described: white sand, clear shallow water, fringing coral, green turtles that nest on it between May and November, and hawksbill turtles and dugongs grazing the seagrass around the archipelago. The underwater profile is not. No operator or guide read for this page publishes a depth range, a wall, a current pattern or a dive route for Siyal, and a diver atlas that records it as a Hamata dive site, along with a second entry called Siyul South, carries only an approximate position and no description. If you want a described dive, the Fury Shoals reefs further out are the ones with published profiles.
What actually happens here is a day boat. Trips leave Hamata marina and run about 40 minutes to the island, allow around an hour of snorkelling, and add a beach break with a walk along the shore and the mangroves before moving on to the next island in the chain. A national park entrance fee of about 40 Egyptian pounds applies, landing is restricted to protect the ground, and fishing is permitted only in authorised deep water well away from the islands.
Day boat from Hamata marina, roughly 40 minutes out to the island; excursion boats also run from Marsa Alam hotels as a 10 hour day with an early pickup, taking in two or three islands of the chain. A diver atlas records an approximate position of 24 degrees 22.866 minutes N, 35 degrees 22.434 minutes E, which is around 16 km north of the coordinate this catalogue currently holds; the catalogue position came from an import that stacked Hamata sites on a resort and is wrong.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
The islands sit inside Wadi El Gemal National Park. Landing is restricted to protect the ground, visitors are asked not to leave litter, and fishing is allowed only in authorised deep water at a distance from the islands. Green turtles nest on Siyal from May to November.
Wadi El Gemal National Park. A park entrance fee of about 40 Egyptian pounds, roughly two euros, is charged per person and is normally collected as part of the excursion ticket.
No source gives a diving season. The one date that matters on the island itself is the green turtle nesting period, May to November, when the beach is at its most sensitive and access to it is most restricted.
Sheltered inshore water 3 to 7 km off the Hamata coast, shallow and clear over white sand and fringing coral. No source read for this page gives a visibility figure, a current reading or a temperature series for the island specifically.
It is Siyal, also written Siyul, the largest of the four islands of the Qulaan archipelago off Hamata in the southern Egyptian Red Sea. The islands lie between 3 and 7 km offshore inside Wadi El Gemal National Park, roughly 130 km south of Marsa Alam.
No. They are two different islands in the same archipelago, along with Shawarit and Mahabis. Day boats visit them as separate stops with a boat leg between them. The two pins sit almost on top of each other in this catalogue only because the coordinates came from a faulty import.
Nobody publishes a depth for it. No operator or dive guide read for this page gives a depth range, a wall or a dive route for the island, and the one diver atlas that lists it carries no description. Ask your operator for the profile on the day rather than planning against a number.
Yes, and it is mainly a snorkelling stop. Day boats from Hamata marina allow about an hour in the water on the shallow, clear, sheltered reef off the island, with mask, fins and vest provided and a guide in the water with the group.
By boat from Hamata marina, about 40 minutes out. Operators also sell it as a full day excursion from Marsa Alam hotels, with an early pickup and a long road transfer, taking in two or three islands of the chain across roughly ten hours.
The islands are inside Wadi El Gemal National Park and a park entrance fee of about 40 Egyptian pounds, roughly two euros, is charged per person, normally included in the excursion ticket. Landing on the islands is restricted, visitors are asked not to leave litter, and fishing is confined to authorised deep water away from the islands.
Green turtles nest on the island between May and November, and hawksbill turtles and dugongs graze the seagrass around the archipelago. The islands are also a bird breeding ground, with terns, gulls and the sooty falcon among the species recorded in the park.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Scarus frenatus | occasional | 28 |
| Chlorurus gibbus | occasional | 24 |
| Acanthurus sohal | occasional | 18 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | occasional | 18 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | occasional | 17 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | occasional | 16 |
| Naso unicornis | occasional | 16 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | occasional | 15 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | occasional | 14 |
| Flavocaranx bajad | occasional | 12 |
| Scarus niger | occasional | 12 |
| Hipposcarus harid | occasional | 12 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | occasional | 12 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 12 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | occasional | 12 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | occasional | 11 |
| Arothron hispidus | occasional | 11 |
| Cetoscarus bicolor | occasional | 11 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | occasional | 10 |
| Coris aygula | occasional | 10 |
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 10 |
| Balistoides viridescens | occasional | 8 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 8 |
| Diodon hystrix | occasional | 8 |
| Monotaxis grandoculis | occasional | 8 |
| Acanthopagrus bifasciatus | occasional | 8 |
| Naso elegans | occasional | 8 |
| Lutjanus bohar | occasional | 7 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 7 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | occasional | 7 |
| Chaetodon larvatus | occasional | 7 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | occasional | 7 |
| Chaetodon auriga | occasional | 7 |
| Siganus stellatus | occasional | 7 |
| Caesio lunaris | occasional | 7 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | occasional | 7 |
| Cephalopholis miniata | occasional | 7 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 7 |
| Hemigymnus melapterus | occasional | 7 |
| Lethrinus harak | occasional | 6 |
| Cephalopholis argus | occasional | 6 |
| Caesio striata | occasional | 6 |
| Tridacna maxima | occasional | 6 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | occasional | 6 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | occasional | 6 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | occasional | 6 |
| Chromis viridis | occasional | 6 |
| Neoglyphidodon melas | occasional | 6 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | occasional | 6 |
| Stegastes nigricans | occasional | 6 |
| Pomacanthus imperator | occasional | 5 |
| Pycnochromis dimidiatus | occasional | 5 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | occasional | 5 |
| Amanses scopas | occasional | 5 |
| Chromis flavaxilla | occasional | 5 |
| Cirripectes castaneus | occasional | 5 |
| Pterois miles | occasional | 5 |
| Ostracion cyanurus | occasional | 5 |
| Halichoeres marginatus | occasional | 5 |
| Coenobita scaevola | rare | 4 |
The mangrove and lagoon island of the Qulaan group off Hamata, worked as the last snorkelling stop of the day.
A resort jetty onto a sheltered fringing reef: sandy lagoon at 2 to 3 m, then a 10 to 15 m outer wall, open from 06:00 to 21:00.
The jetty reef at the Zabargad resort in Hamata: giant stride off the end, wall and overhangs, deep water within a fin's length of the coral.
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