Tiger house

The dive

Tiger House, also listed as Tiger Reef, is a shore dive on the coast between Dahab and the Blue Hole. It is a straightforward coral-garden dive along a shallow reef, with a maximum around 28 m and visibility quoted at about 25 m. Entry is from a jetty over the reef top, which is why operators run it only in low wind and light wave action - the entrance is above the reef and the crossing is what stops the dive, not anything below.

The reef itself is popular with divers of all levels, from newly certified up. There is a deeper canyon on this stretch that technical divers use for extra depth; it is not part of the recreational dive and should not be treated as an extension of it. The whole site sits a short way south of the Blue Hole, and it is worth being clear that it shares nothing with it beyond the coastline - no arch, no overhead, no hundred-metre hole.

Marine life is standard Gulf of Aqaba reef fauna, and our own occurrence records for the spot bear that out: scalefin anthias in numbers, twoband anemonefish, Klunzinger's wrasse, purple tang, giant clams, sergeant majors, sulphur damsels, bullethead parrotfish, masked butterflyfish, forsteri hawkfish and royal angelfish. Dive guides add barracuda, lionfish, parrotfish and triggerfish.

• Shallow coral garden dive on the coast south of the Blue Hole
• Jetty entry over the reef top; runs only in low wind and calm water
• Maximum around 28 m with quoted visibility of about 25 m
• A deeper canyon on this stretch used by technical divers, outside the recreational dive

Conditions

Calm and shallow when the wind allows. In from the jetty over the reef top, out along a coral garden for around 100 m with a 28 m maximum and roughly 25 m of visibility, then back the same way. No significant current is reported.

On current: A dive guide gives a 28 m maximum and about 25 m visibility for the site, with a roughly 100 m dive distance along the reef. Other listings quote deeper figures of up to 45 m, which appear to refer to the technical canyon on this stretch rather than the recreational reef; we record the conservative 28 m. Entry is over the reef top from a jetty and is only advisable in low wind and light wave action, which is the site's real limiting condition. No significant current is reported.

Dives & underwater footage