Tobia Kebir

The dive

Tobia Kebir is the largest of the Tobia dive sites off Safaga; kebir means large, and Tobia is the area, named after Tobia Island. SCUBA Travel, whose account is first-hand, describes it as a long reef running north to south with several ergs south of it, and the standard dive as a crossing of the channel between the north and south reefs, with boats mooring at the southerly end of the north reef. Other Safaga centres describe the same ground as an oval main reef ringed by a sandy plateau, which is the view from a different mooring rather than a different reef. Blue Submarine and Diving-top both quote 35 minutes by boat from Safaga and rate it 1 on their five-step scale, the easiest bracket they use; from Soma Bay it is a half-day boat dive.

The reef is hard coral. Porites flows down the slope into a coral that reads blue-green until you put a torch on it and it turns lilac. Off the reef itself the bottom is sand dotted with coral clumps, and the sandy patches inside the reef are where Safaga centres run beginner exercises, which is a fair summary of what this site is for. On the east side there is a small cave at around 10 m packed with glassfish and hatchetfish, and Nemo Dive Club describes the southern pinnacles as full of cracks and crevices with glassfish sheltering in them and the eastern wall carrying grouper, surgeonfish, unicornfish and anemones with anemonefish.

Depth is the one thing the sources argue about. SCUBA Travel gives 15 m, Blue Submarine and Diving-top 16 m, Nemo Dive Club 18 m, and Blue Submarine's Italian site a 10 to 20 m range. Sixteen metres is used here as the conservative planning figure; nothing on this reef requires you to go deeper. Difficulty follows the same pattern: every operator except Nemo calls it an all-levels reef and Diving-top explicitly names it the perfect site for the first day of a Safaga week.

Spotted eagle ray, garden eels on the sand between the reefs, blue-spotted stingray and flatfish on the sand, triggerfish, and moray are the regular sightings. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is among the more frequently recorded animals near this pin and Nemo reports dolphins here occasionally in summer. Beware which Tobia you are reading about: Tobia Soraya is the small one ten minutes from Soma Bay, Tobia Arba'a is the seven-pillar site, and Tobia Nos and Tobia Hamra are separate pins again, all within about 3 km.

• The channel crossing between the north and south reefs
• A small cave at about 10 m filled with glassfish and hatchetfish
• Garden eels on the sand between the reefs
• Porites slope running into coral that only shows its lilac colour under a torch
• Sandy patches inside the reef used for beginner training
• Spotted eagle ray, and bottlenose dolphin occasionally in summer

Conditions

Calm, shallow and warm. A current usually runs from the north but rarely hard, the bottom is sand and hard coral, and the profile sits inside 16 m. SCUBA Travel notes that the corals in the Safaga and Soma Bay area were in good condition as of January 2026, holding up even through higher water temperatures. Water runs from about 21 C in February to 29 C in August.

On current: SCUBA Travel reports that a current often comes from the north, which is why boats moor at the southerly end of the north reef and divers cross the channel from there. United Divers Egypt says strong current is rare here and that this is exactly what makes the site work for training. Both can be true: expect something moving, expect it from the north, and do not expect it to be the problem. No operator publishes a measured figure.

Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov

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