Dahab · Egypt · Wall · Cave & cavern · Lagoon
Gabr el Bint
No road in — a 50-minute boat ride to a fan-coral drop-off
Area photo: Petar Milošević · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gabr el Bint sits about 15 kilometres south of Dahab with no road to it: the only way in is by boat, about 50 minutes out. The dive works a drop-off hung with fan corals, a small cave at 26 metres, and a sandy lagoon of table corals on the way back, finishing on a reef plateau that can run a stronger current.
Where it is and how deep
28.3536° N, 34.4328° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The boat ride is part of the day: Gabr el Bint is about 15 kilometres south of Dahab and has no road access, so groups come by day boat in around 50 minutes. The dive starts on the drop-off, a wall carrying fan corals, and follows it with reef on one shoulder and open water on the other, where tuna, mackerel, snappers and fusiliers pass in the blue.
A small cave at 26 metres is the deepest point and the feature to plan the profile around. From there the route comes shallower and crosses back over a sandy lagoon set with table corals, where milkfish are often seen, before ending on a reef plateau. The reef itself is the colourful part: damselfish in numbers, groupers, octopus, snails and shrimp among the coral.
Marine life and season
- Tuna
- Reef fish swarms
- Groupers
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows Dahab: Conditions stay calm and shore-diveable year-round; visibility peaks in spring and autumn shoulder months.
Know before you go
- The reef plateau where the dive ends can run a stronger current than the rest of the site; keep gas in reserve for that last stretch and stay with the group across it.
Questions divers ask
How do you get to Gabr el Bint?+
By boat only. The site is about 15 kilometres south of Dahab and has no road access, so it is run as a day-boat trip of about 50 minutes — one of the few dives in Dahab that is not reached by pickup along the coast road.
Sources
- Gabr el Bint - Dahab dive site — Scubago
- Dahab — Wikivoyage
More dive sites in Dahab
A 26-metre tunnel at 55 metres links the sinkhole to open water
Coral garden
Shared entrance with the Canyon, then a slow run south
Garden eels standing in the sand a few fin-kicks from the entry
Sand slope
A single large block at 14 metres, loaded with small life
Drift
A canyon from 20 to 50 metres and a forest of giant gorgonians
Reef
A town house reef: seagrass, then coral blocks to 22 metres
Reef
A coral block packed with glassfish and bannerfish
Freediving lines to 40 m and a scrap-metal elephant on the sand
Similar dives elsewhere
Overhangs on the southern wall and a cavern you enter at 10 m
A vertical wall that drops to 90 m before it slopes
Shafts of light in a cracked cavern on the north wall
Scalloped hammerheads off the back of the reef in late summer