Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · sea · Safaga and Soma Bay

🇪🇬 Tobia Arbaa

Soma Bay, Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt

Five coral pillars standing on sand in Soma Bay — except two of them are split down the middle, which is why the same site is also sold as Seven Pillars.

Dives here
3
Deepest
28.8 m
Water
salt
First · last
2009
Also known as
Tobia Arbaa (Zeven Pinnacles) · Seven Pillars · Seven Pinnacles · Tobia Arbaa / 7 Pinnacles

Revision 2 · changed 18 Oct 2026

History
  1. r2 18 Oct 2026 Neutral geo_source · Dennis Bakhuis
  2. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Sand 12-15 mSwim round the pillars · 220 mPillar↓14 mPillar↓14 mSplit pillar↓13 m↓13 mSplit pillar↓13 m↓13 mPillar↓13 m↓13 mMooringsN10 m
  • Buoy
  • Pinnacle / rock
  • Dive path
  • Sand
  • Depth
Site map · 8 objects · 1 path · max 14 m

Tobia Arbaa, the Seven Pillars: the coral pillars standing on sand at 12-15 m (five towers, two of them split, so eight heads), the moorings south of them and the swim from pillar to pillar, placed at the dive-centre coordinates (26.83664, 33.99132); positions and depths are approximate.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

Tobia Arbaa means four towers, and Soma Bay's dive boats will also sell you the same reef as Seven Pillars or Tobia Soraya. The honest count is five pillars rising from a sandy bottom at about 15 m, two of which are split by clefts wide enough to swim through, which gets you to seven if you are counting generously.

Fifteen minutes by boat from Safaga. Shallow, sheltered, full of glassfish and lionfish in the clefts, and a reliable night dive.

Three dives here, all December 2009.

Dived here with

Kim Mahmoud

Nearby sites

3 dives at Tobia Arbaa

  1. 3 Dec 2009 with Mahmoud nightboat date3 Dec 2009 depth12.4 m time48 min water—
  2. 3 Dec 2009 with Kim boat date3 Dec 2009 depth15.4 m time67 min water—
  3. 3 Dec 2009 with Kim boat date3 Dec 2009 depth28.8 m time48 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)