Halg Salmaan

The name Halg Salmaan means 'Salmaan's throat': a crack in the fringing reef that doesn't reach the shore. It is a small, V-shaped inlet between hard coral reef walls to the north and south, littered with caves, overhangs and boulders. Despite being close to Marsa Mubarak and Shouni Kebier, it is rarely visited. The south reef is best in calm weather, while the north reef is more sheltered.

There are two sites: Maksour, meaning 'broken', for its reef wall full of cracks and channels, with a ravine and a large pinnacle, and Hadana, 'breeding ground', whose pinnacles shelter young fish. At Maksour there is a huge table coral and fire coral formations that host pipefish and cleaner wrasse. The lagoon between the two sites often attracts large groups of spinner dolphins. To reach Hadana you cross a sandbar where eagle rays hunt, and the lagoon there is home to large black snappers and twin spotted snappers. Lots of scorpion fish and pretty corals can also be seen.