Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House)

Samadai is the reason "Dolphin House" is a phrase every visitor to Marsa Alam hears in the first hour. The reef wall blocks the northerly wind and turns the lagoon into a calm, sandy pool where spinner dolphins come after a night of hunting in the deep water offshore. They rest, socialise and look after their calves here through the late morning.

The lagoon is divided into three zones marked with buoys. Zone A, the inner rest area, is closed to everyone. Zone B is where guided snorkeling groups float at the edge of the rest zone. Zone C is for diving and boat moorings on the outer reef. The rules exist because the pod stopped using the reef for a period in the early 2000s when boats were unregulated; since the zoning it has come back and stayed.

Outside the lagoon the reef drops away steeply: a 200 m wall on the west side and 600 m on the east. The outer coral gardens are where the second snorkel session happens: anemone city with its clownfish, glassfish caves, turtles on the sandy slope, eagle rays and occasionally a reef shark below.