A semiconductor surface light-emitting element of this invention is provided with a photonic crystal layer 6 obtained by periodically forming a plurality of holes H in a basic layer 6A comprised of a first compound semiconductor of the zinc blend structure and growing embedded regions 6B comprised of a second compound semiconductor of the zinc blend structure, in the holes H, and an active layer 4 to supply light to the photonic crystal layer 6, in which a principal surface of the basic layer 6A is a (001) plane and in which side faces of each hole H have at least three different {100} facets.