Habili Ali is an oval shaped reef and is the easternmost diving point of St. John’s. Its walls and ridges are full of beautiful coral, with great specimens of elkhorn coral, blue coral, large gorgonian fans, many whip corals and black coral forests. Drift diving is the best way to admire the inlaid coral and reef fish living in the steep walls.
The east side is usually visited by gray sharks and whitetip sharks while in the western side you can see schools of hammerhead sharks, napoleon wrasse and huge green humphead parrotfish. The north side of the reef has lots of caves and overhangs, especially between 5 and 20 meters of depth, where a beautiful garden of soft corals lie. The south side has a lot of cracks but is much shallower, with depths ranging from 5 to 8 meters. All reef walls are filled with all kinds of fish, millions of anthias, damselfish, clownfish, parrotfish, groupers, Red Sea bannerfish, surgeons fish… the color of this reef is amazing, and it seems that it is artificially iluminated.
Throughout the whole reef you can see groups of bottlenose dolphins in search for schools of fish. You can also find large manta rays but, unfortunately, they are not very frequent. During May and June many divers approach Habili Ali looking the oceanic whitetip shark, one of the stars of diving in the southern Red Sea.
