Habili Gaffar

Overview

Habili Gaffar (sometimes "Jaffar") is a small, exposed pinnacle at the heart of the St John's reefs in Egypt's far south — a submerged coral tower that never quite reaches the surface, rising from deep water to just below the waves. Its tiny size and total lack of shelter make it a current-swept big-fish magnet, prized for dawn shark encounters and accessible only on calm days deep into a southern liveaboard trip.

The Dive

A "habili" is a reef that stops short of the surface, and Gaffar is a textbook example: it climbs from over 100m, forms a ledge around 70m, then rises steeply to about 3m below the surface, where it is only some 30m across. The diving is all wall and ledge — you drop in and work around the pinnacle, hanging on the steep coral sides and watching the blue, with the deeper ledge being prime shark territory. Because the reef is so small and offers no protection from wind, waves or current, it can only be approached in calm conditions and has just a single mooring, so boats line up to take turns.

This is an advanced site: a small target in open water with potentially strong current and real depth right off the wall. It is best dived early, planned tightly, and approached only by divers comfortable drifting around an exposed pinnacle into the blue.

Marine Life

Gaffar's exposure is exactly what brings the big fish in. Early-morning dives are known for hammerheads, with grey reef, thresher and oceanic whitetip sharks all possible in the surrounding blue. Schools of barracuda, jack, fusilier and snapper wrap the pinnacle, and the steep coral walls are thick with soft coral, gorgonians and anthias. The small footprint concentrates the life, making for an intense, fish-packed dive when conditions allow.

Good to Know

Habili Gaffar is liveaboard-only, on Deep South / St John's itineraries from the southern ports (Hamata or Port Ghalib/Marsa Alam), and is dived alongside Gota Kebir, Gota Soraya, Habili Ali and the Umm Kharalim caves. It is a calm-weather, early-morning site — the single mooring and exposure mean it only goes ahead when the sea cooperates. Best conditions roughly March to November; visibility is typically 25–30m+. Time it right for the dawn shark show; this is one of St John's most thrilling small reefs.