Shaab El Erg, known to every Hurghada dive guide as 'Dolphin House', is a horseshoe-shaped reef 60 minutes by boat from the marina. A resident pod of spinner dolphins uses the shallow lagoon inside the horseshoe as a daytime rest area. We've logged their presence on roughly 70% of our visits over the past two seasons. The outer wall drops to 30 metres with healthy hard coral cover.
- Depth
- 5-30 m
- Visibility
- 20–25 m
- Season
- Jan - Dec
- Boat ride
- 60 min
- Difficulty
- Open Water+
Topography and dive profile
The reef forms a perfect horseshoe with a protected sandy lagoon inside, 5-8 metres deep. The spinner dolphins drift in around mid-morning to rest after a night of feeding offshore. The outer reef wall drops from 5 to 30 metres with hard coral, table corals, and resident giant moray eels in the deeper crevices.
A standard day at Shaab El Erg means one dive on the outer wall and one quiet snorkel session in the lagoon if the dolphins are there. If they're not, we run a second wall dive on the opposite side of the reef.
What you'll see
- ◇Spinner dolphins
- ◇Turtles
- ◇Moray eels
- ◇Lionfish
Who it suits
PADI Open Water and above for the wall dive. The lagoon snorkel suits anyone with a mask, including kids and non-divers in your group.
When the captain runs this site
When Shaab El Erg is in the captain's plan for the day, the boat aims for an arrival around 09:00 to assess dolphin presence first. If the pod is in the lagoon we drop in to snorkel quietly: no fins kicking down, no flash, respectful distance. Two dives plus a hot lunch on board. To book a daily-dive day, see the daily diving page · the captain confirms the morning of which sites the boat is heading to based on wind direction.