Diving in Sahl Hasheesh: The Complete Guide (2026)

Sahl Hasheesh is one of the Red Sea's most relaxed places to dive: a wide, sheltered resort bay where the reef starts close to shore, the water stays calm, and a short boat ride reaches some of the best reefs and wrecks on the Hurghada coast. Just south of Hurghada and minutes from the airport, it pairs an easy sandy house reef with a full menu of boat diving to the reefs and wrecks of the Hurghada coast — which makes it a natural base for beginners, families and certified divers alike. This guide covers where Sahl Hasheesh is, what the diving is really like, the house reef, the dive sites within reach, the marine life, the shallow Sunken City off the Old Town Marina, snorkelling, who it suits and when to go.

Where Sahl Hasheesh is

Sahl Hasheesh is a purpose-built resort bay on Egypt's Red Sea coast, on the mainland shore about 18 to 20 kilometres south of Hurghada and a short 25 to 40 minute drive from Hurghada International Airport (HRG). It is a planned destination rather than a working town — a sweep of hotels around a single, gently curving bay of clear, shallow water, edged with reef.

At the northern headland sits a modern "Old Town" district of restaurants, shops and a lantern-lit piazza wrapped around a small marina. The curve of the coast shelters the water from much of the prevailing north wind, so it is often flat and clear when the open sea is white-capped, and the shoreline shelves gently over sand into coral. It is that shelter, more than any single famous reef, that defines diving here.

Sahl Hasheesh sits on the same stretch of Red Sea coast as its neighbours and shares their reefs and marine life — Hurghada and the Giftun islands to the north, and Makadi Bay and Safaga to the south. For the bigger picture of the region and its conditions, see the complete guide to scuba diving the Red Sea.

Why divers choose Sahl Hasheesh

Sahl Hasheesh tends to win divers over for practical reasons rather than one headline wall. The strongest of them:

• It is calm and sheltered. The bay's curve tames the wind and chop, so shore entries are easy and boats can usually run when rougher coasts are marginal — a real advantage for nervous or newly certified divers.
• The reef starts at the beach. An easy house reef off the sand means a relaxed first or last dive of the day with no long boat ride, and the shallow Sunken City off the marina is there to snorkel between dives.
• It suits every level in one group. A family or mixed-ability group can dive the same day — the shallow house reef for one diver, a boat wall or wreck for another — without splitting up.
• It reaches the whole Hurghada coast. From the bay, boats run north to the classic Hurghada and Giftun reefs and south towards Makadi and Safaga, so the site list is far longer than the bay's size suggests.
• It is quiet and comfortable. Fewer boats than Hurghada Marina means less crowded reefs, and the resort setting makes it an easy, relaxed base on the surface as well as below it.

Getting there from the airport

Getting to Sahl Hasheesh is refreshingly simple. It sits about 18 to 20 kilometres south of Hurghada International Airport, a road transfer of roughly 25 to 40 minutes depending on traffic — one of the quickest Red Sea diving bases to reach after landing. Most divers arrive as part of a resort stay and arrange diving with a centre on the bay.

Once you are there, the diving comes to you. The house reef is a shore dive reached on foot from the beach, while the boat sites are short hops from the bay — the nearer Hurghada and Giftun reefs are around 30 to 60 minutes away, and the further wrecks and Safaga sites are a longer day trip. Because most sites are close, a typical day runs two boat dives with a leisurely surface interval, or a boat dive paired with an unhurried shore dive on the house reef. And because the bay's own reefs lie outside any marine park, there is no national-park fee to pay for diving in Sahl Hasheesh itself.

The Sahl Hasheesh house reef

The everyday dive here is the bay's house reef, often called the Coral Beach house reef — the fringing reef along the front of the resort beach, reached by walking in from the sand or stepping off a jetty. Entry is typically over sand in just a few metres of water, which makes it forgiving: an easy place to run through skills, settle nerves, check gear, or simply potter about with no boat schedule.

From the shallow entry the reef slopes down over sand, with coral gardens over a gentle slope to a comfortable 20 metres and deeper sand beyond. It is genuinely rich for a shore dive: hard and soft corals, clouds of anthias and reef fish, lionfish under the ledges, moray eels, octopus, blue-spotted stingrays over the sand, and turtles and eagle rays that pass through regularly. Divers with a slow pace and a sharp eye also turn up camouflaged sand-dwellers — crocodilefish, scorpionfish and stonefish — and, on night dives, Spanish dancers and hunting octopus.

Because it is shallow, sheltered and endlessly re-diveable, the house reef doubles as a training ground and a check-dive site — the perfect place to build the buoyancy and comfort that make every other dive better, and a favourite for night diving.

The dive sites around Sahl Hasheesh

The house reef is the easy everyday dive, but the reason Sahl Hasheesh punches above its weight is the boat diving within reach. From the bay, boats run north to the reefs and islands off Hurghada and the Giftun, and south towards Makadi and Safaga — so a few days here can string together shallow coral gardens, dramatic walls and drop-offs, drifts and even wrecks. A guide chooses the day's sites to match the weather, the current and the group.

Erg Somaya

One of the most striking reefs within reach is Erg Somaya — an offshore pinnacle reef ("erg" is the local word for such a coral tower). A coral wall and a sandy ledge drop away into the blue, with the erg itself rising from around 9 to 15 metres, draped in soft corals and gorgonian fans. It is a lively, colourful dive with a real chance of pelagic action — barracuda, snapper, jackfish and tuna cruise the reef edge — and on its deeper flanks it suits confident, Advanced-level divers.

Abu Hashish

To the south of the bay, towards Makadi, Abu Hashish is a broad, versatile reef. A sheltered, shallow sandy plateau (roughly 10 to 20 metres) with a deeper drop-off beyond gives it something for everyone — an easy lagoon and coral garden for beginners, and a classic Red Sea drift along the wall for the more experienced. Turtles, moray eels, groupers, octopus, barracuda and eagle rays are all regulars.

Gota Abu Ramada — "The Aquarium"

To the north, off Hurghada near the Giftun islands, sits one of the coast's most-loved sites, Gota Abu Ramada — an oval coral block on bright sand that is widely nicknamed "The Aquarium" for the sheer density of fish. The reef sits at a comfortable 12 to 16 metres, ringed by pinnacles, gorgonians and anemones and swarming with butterflyfish, sweetlips, groupers, glassfish and goatfish, with moray eels in the cracks and jacks on the edges. Shallow, sheltered and easy, it suits all levels — a firm favourite for a relaxed, camera-friendly dive.

The Giftun reefs and Umm Gamar

Further north, the reefs around the Giftun islands and Umm Gamar hold some of the Hurghada area's best diving — coral walls, drop-offs, drifts and swim-throughs at sites such as Small Giftun, Turtle Bay, Careless Reef and Umm Gamar, where deeper water brings gorgonians, larger fish and a genuine chance of reef sharks. Several are Advanced-level dives; the twin-pinnacle plateau of Careless Reef has its own guide, and the full northern line-up is in the best dive sites in Hurghada guide.

The wrecks

For divers who want steel as well as coral, Sahl Hasheesh is within reach of Red Sea wrecks on special trips. The El Mina, an Egyptian navy vessel lying at around 18 to 30 metres off Hurghada, is an atmospheric Advanced-level dive. Further afield, the reef of Abu Nuhas — the "ships' graveyard" — holds four famous wrecks, and further south off Safaga the Salem Express, a passenger ferry lost with heavy loss of life in 1991, is a serious, deeper wreck treated by divers and guides as a solemn memorial as much as a dive site. All are occasional special trips rather than everyday dives.

A typical Sahl Hasheesh day pairs an easy site with a livelier one — a shallow coral garden and a wall, or the house reef and a drift — so mixed-ability groups dive together comfortably.

Marine life

Sahl Hasheesh's reefs hold the full cast of northern Red Sea life, from the house-reef shallows to the offshore walls. What you might meet, depending on site and season:

• Turtles and rays: green and hawksbill turtles are seen regularly on the house reef and the nearby reefs, along with spotted eagle rays and blue-spotted stingrays over the sand.
• Reef residents: Napoleon wrasse, giant moray eels, groupers, lionfish, pufferfish, and clouds of anthias and butterflyfish over the coral.
• The macro and the camouflaged: octopus, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, crocodilefish, scorpionfish and stonefish, with seahorses, pipefish and, on night dives, Spanish dancers for the sharp-eyed and patient.
• Out in the blue: barracuda, jacks and tuna patrol the reef edges, and on the deeper offshore reefs — Careless Reef, Umm Gamar and the Giftun drop-offs — there is a genuine chance of reef sharks; dolphins sometimes pass the offshore sites.
• The coral: hard-coral gardens on the plateaus, and dense soft corals and gorgonians on the walls and pinnacles.

For the wider seasonal picture of what appears when, see the marine life encyclopedia.

Conditions and who it suits

Sahl Hasheesh's real strength is range: it has a site for almost everyone, which is why it works so well for mixed groups.

Beginners and families are the sweet spot. The house reef offers forgiving, shallow water and a gentle shore entry, and visibility across the bay typically runs 20 to 30 metres or more — so a first-timer sees plenty with little effort and builds confidence quickly.

Certified and Advanced divers are far from bored, though. The walls and drop-offs at Erg Somaya, Careless Reef and Umm Gamar, the drifts at Abu Hashish, and the El Mina and Salem Express wrecks give genuine depth, current and structure. Some of these carry moderate current and sit over deep water, so good buoyancy and, for the walls and wrecks, Advanced Open Water certification are recommended — and a guide who reads the site matches the day to your level. If your buoyancy is not there yet, that is not a closed door — it is the next course; the PADI pathway from Open Water to Divemaster explains how divers build toward sites like these.

Water temperature runs from the low 20s °C in winter to around 28–29 °C at the height of summer; the best time to dive the Red Sea guide has the month-by-month detail and wetsuit advice.

The Sunken City: a shallow snorkel stop

Sahl Hasheesh's best-known curiosity is the Sunken City, in the shallows off the Old Town Marina. It is worth being clear about what it is: not a genuine archaeological site — there are no ancient ruins beneath the bay — but a modern, man-made installation of columns, carved facades and pharaonic-style sculptures, deliberately placed in the shallows as a resort curiosity. It is not a guided boat dive and is not part of the dive centre's programme; it sits in only a few metres of water close to the marina and is best enjoyed as a shallow snorkel or an independent shore visit.

Over the years the stone has grown a light covering of coral and draws a little marine life — octopus tucked into the carvings, small reef fish and the occasional moray eel. Its shallow, sheltered setting and clear water make it a relaxed, photogenic stop for snorkellers and swimmers, and an easy thing to add to a day in the bay.

Snorkelling in Sahl Hasheesh

Sahl Hasheesh is as good for snorkellers as it is for divers. The shallow Sunken City just above is the obvious draw — snorkellers can float over its columns and sculptures straight from the marina — but the bay's house reef is just as rewarding, with a gentle sandy entry, coral within easy reach, and turtles seen from the surface as often as from below.

For those who want more, snorkelling boat trips run to the reefs and islands off the coast — the Giftun islands, Orange Bay and the offshore reefs — where clear, shallow water sits over bright sand. It makes Sahl Hasheesh a natural choice for groups where some want to dive and others want to snorkel — everyone can be on the same reef, on the same day.

When to go

Sahl Hasheesh dives all year, and the sheltered bay means conditions are workable in almost any season. The character changes month to month:

• Spring and autumn (March to May, September to November): for many the sweet spot — comfortable water around 24–28 °C, settled weather, excellent visibility and fewer crowds than peak summer.
• June to September (summer): the warmest water (around 28–30 °C), a thin wetsuit or even a shorty, and the most marine life. Long, hot, sunny days — the surface can be very warm, but the diving is easy and colourful.
• December to February (winter): cooler water (around 21–22 °C) and air, often the calmest and clearest conditions, and a noticeably quieter coast. A thicker wetsuit is worth packing, but the diving is excellent and uncrowded.

How to plan and book

Sahl Hasheesh works best as a relaxed, few-days base: easy house-reef dives to warm up or wind down, and boat trips to the Hurghada, Giftun and Safaga reefs and wrecks when you want more. Because the sites span every level, it is an ideal place to learn, to bring a mixed group, or simply to dive good reefs without long travel or crowds. Newer divers can build confidence in the bay before stepping up to the walls, drifts and wrecks.

Aquarius runs guided diving from its Sahl Hasheesh base — shore dives on the Coral Beach house reef and guided boat trips to the region's best reefs and wrecks, with guides who match each dive to your level, quality equipment and small groups. Whether you are here for your very first breaths underwater or an experienced diver after the walls and wrecks, plan and book your Sahl Hasheesh diving and the day is built around you.

Frequently asked questions