Rabigh, Makkah Region tide times

Rabigh is a working city on the Red Sea coast, 150 km north of Jeddah and 90 km south of Yanbu. Two things define it from the water: the PETRO Rabigh petrochemical complex with its tanker jetties to the north of the city, and the Al Marssa traditional fishing harbour on the south side. These two facilities sit within a few kilometres of each other and represent completely different relationships with the sea and the tide.

The tidal regime at Rabigh is mixed semidiurnal with a mean range of 0.5–0.9 m. That range is slightly larger than at Jeddah or Thuwal to the south, and the increase is systematic: moving northward along the Red Sea coast from the tidal minimum in the central basin toward the Gulf of Aqaba, tidal amplitude grows progressively. Rabigh is in the transitional zone where the amplitude is climbing but has not yet reached the larger swings found further north. Two unequal highs and two unequal lows occur each day, with the diurnal inequality meaning the two high waters can differ by 0.2–0.4 m on the same day.

At the PETRO Rabigh industrial port, tidal state feeds directly into tanker operations. The turning basin and approach channels are dredged, but the margin between loaded-vessel draft and channel depth is tight enough that port pilots coordinate arrivals and departures with the tidal curve. A tanker loading a full cargo of petrochemical product will depart on the rising tide to maximize under-keel clearance on the final leg through the harbour approach. This is routine port-tide coordination, the same logic applied in every industrial harbour with constrained draft — but the mixed semidiurnal pattern at Rabigh means the two daily highs are not equal, and pilots working here track which high water is the larger before scheduling deep-draft departures.

The Al Marssa harbour operates on a simpler schedule. Small wooden and fibreglass fishing boats, mostly 7–12 metres, depart before dawn. The pre-dawn departure is both practical and traditional: the flood tide during the early morning hours carries boats seaward efficiently with a following current, and the offshore breeze before sunrise gives a clean reach to the offshore reef grounds. Boats typically return mid-morning on the ebb, riding the current back to harbour and arriving in time for the Al Marssa fish market to open for the day. The catch is primarily reef fish — hamour (grouper), snapper, and smaller species taken by handline and net on the offshore reef system to the west of Rabigh Bay.

That reef system draws recreational divers, mostly travelling from Jeddah as a day or weekend trip. The reefs west of Rabigh in the Red Sea offshore lie in water 15–40 m deep and hold the hard coral communities typical of the northern Red Sea: table corals, massive Porites heads, and the branching Acropora colonies that characterise healthy Red Sea reef crests. The tidal current over the reef tops is gentle — typically under 0.5 knots at this latitude — making navigation and buoyancy control straightforward for recreational divers. The offshore location keeps turbidity low; visibility of 15–25 m is normal in the October–March period.

For beach families, Rabigh Bay itself is sheltered by the headlands and the offshore reef structure. The narrow tidal range means beach access is consistent across the tidal cycle — the shoreline does not migrate significantly with the tide. The water is shallow inshore, warming quickly in summer to above 30°C. The best conditions for family beach use are the winter months, October through March, when sea temperatures sit at 24–27°C and the air is not prohibitively hot.

Photographers working the Rabigh coast have two distinct subjects: the industrial geometry of the PETRO Rabigh complex to the north — lit at night by flare stacks and processing plant lights — and the traditional harbour at Al Marssa, where the pre-dawn return of the fishing fleet in early morning light provides a scene unchanged in character over generations even as the boats themselves have modernised. The contrast between the two makes Rabigh an unusual Red Sea coastal town to document.

Tide data for Rabigh, Makkah Region comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API, a gridded model product. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.3 m — usable for trip planning, not for navigation.