The Three Corners Sea Beach Resort, housereef

The dive

This pin is an access point, not a reef. It marks the shore entry at the Three Corners Sea Beach Resort on the Marsa Alam coast, about 8 to 10 km north of Marsa Alam International Airport and roughly 10 km south of Port Ghalib. The resort's own description is the primary source for what is here: a large beachfront directly facing the open sea, a walk from the Blue Lagoon beach, a jetty that gives access to the swimming and snorkelling areas, and a dive centre on site with diving charged as an extra. Three Corners still list the property among their Marsa Alam hotels.

The geography matters more than the marketing. Coraya Bay, the sheltered bay whose house reef is well documented, sits about 660 m north of this pin and is catalogued separately as Marsa Umm Gerifat and Marsa Umm Gerifat South; Shaab Alaya is 230 m away. Coraya Divers describe that bay as open only to the north-east, protected from the strong currents and high waves of the open sea, and divable from their jetty every day of the year, with a north and a south reef. Snorkel Around The World lists the jetties inside the bay as belonging to the Jaz Lamaya, Steigenberger Alaya and Solymar Reef resorts. This resort is not one of them: its own page puts its beach on the open sea, so treat this entry as the exposed-coast neighbour of the sheltered bay rather than as part of it.

Nothing read gives a depth profile, a visibility figure or a current measurement for this particular frontage, so none is set on this page. What can be said is that the reef here is heavily observed: OBIS holds 60 taxa within 1.5 km of the pin, with sohal surgeonfish recorded 56 times and Ruppell's wrasse 45, alongside sailfin and purple tangs, diagonal and threadfin butterflyfish, Picasso triggerfish, unicornfish, giant clams, bluespotted ribbontail ray, lionfish, giant moray and Red Sea bannerfish. That record pattern - one shallow reef, many observations of common reef fish - is what a snorkelled hotel reef looks like in the data. Snorkel Around The World's own verdict on the reefs along this stretch is worth carrying: less vibrant than they were when tourism here was lighter, but still worth the swim.

• Jetty entry from the resort's own beach, with the dive centre on the beach beside it
• One of several resort entries along this stretch, each onto a different piece of reef
• Sheltered alternative 660 m north in Coraya Bay, catalogued here as Marsa Umm Gerifat
• 60 taxa recorded by OBIS within 1.5 km, dominated by common shallow-reef fish

Conditions

A walk down a hotel beach to a jetty, which is the whole of the effort involved. Beyond that, none of the sources read gives conditions specific to this frontage - no visibility figure, no current, no seasonal note. The one structural fact is exposure: the resort describes its beach as directly on the open sea, whereas the sheltered water on this stretch is Coraya Bay to the north, which Coraya Divers say can be dived every day of the year because it opens only to the north-east.