Hurghada & El Gouna · Egypt · Reef · Lagoon
Abu Hashish
A table-coral channel from the lagoon out to a pelagic drop-off
Photo: Christian Berg · CC BY 4.0
Abu Hashish is an island at the centre of a wide bay south of Hurghada, where a lagoon opens through a channel onto a shelf and a drop-off. Pelagic fish and whitetips patrol the drop-off, and the site suits all levels of divers and training.
Also known as Abu Hashish Island, Abu Hashisch.
Where it is and how deep
27.0117° N, 33.9234° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The usual route leaves the lagoon through an obvious channel filled with table corals, crosses the shelf to the drop-off and follows it north. The current runs mainly north to south and is strongest along the drop-off, where jacks, barracuda, spanish mackerel and whitetips are common, and caves open in the 30 m region.
Marine life and season
- Trevally & jacks
- Barracuda
- Reef sharks
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Hurghada & El Gouna: Diving runs all year; the seas settle from March to November and are calmest in summer, while February brings the coolest water.
Photos from Abu Hashish
Thom Doeleman · CC BY 4.0
Dive videos
Abu Hashish Reef, Red Sea. · Mark Milburn on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Which way does the current run at Abu Hashish?+
Mainly north to south, and strongest along the drop-off.
Sources
- Abu Hashish Dive Site - Egypt Divers — Egypt Divers
- Abu Hashish Lagoon - ScubaGo — ScubaGo
Photo credits
- Eleven dark tangs with faint vertical stripes swim together over pale shallow coral by Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A lionfish with striped fins tucked under a rocky coral overhang in shallow water by Thom Doeleman, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Hurghada & El Gouna
An anemone city where hundreds of anemonefish guard their young
A calm lagoon of pinnacles sheltered when the outer reef is pounded
Pinnacle
Two pinnacles on a 16-metre plateau, with a wall dropping to 60 metres
An 1869 P&O steamer rotted back to her iron ribs at 24 m
One big pinnacle full of glassfish and moray eels
A wall, a 20 m-wide plateau, then a drop-off past 70 m
A minesweeper on her port side, 25 minutes from the marina
Wall
A small canyon at the foot of the drop-off, 40 m down
Similar dives elsewhere
A resting pod of 60 to 80 spinner dolphins in the lagoon.
Four small reefs around a lagoon, canyon terrain, mild current
Swim-throughs and pinnacles from 10 metres, diveable year-round.
Tunnels and fissures cut into an 840 m reef block