Lying some 31 miles from Sharm El Sheikh, the Thistlegorm is a popular site often visited by divers on day trips as well as liveaboard boats. Built in 1940, the Thistlegorm was a sizeable British transport ship. Early one morning in October 1941 while moored at Sha’ab Ali, she was struck by German bombers and sank. She was carrying a cargo of munitions, anti-tank mines, motorcycles, Bedford trucks, spare parts, tyres and medicines amongst other things for the...
Built in Newcastle in 1873, this British steamer met her end in 1876 while bound for Bombay with a cargo of timber and cotton, which were lost in the ship wreck when the ship caught fire. She lies upside-down in 15 – 29.5 metres depth. The dive starts at the stern and takes you inside the hull where yo
The Kimon M was a cargo vessel, built in Germany in 1952. On 12th December 1978, while en route from Turkey to Bombay via Suez with a cargo of lentils, she struck the north-eastern end of Sha’ab Abu Nuhas reef at full speed. For a while the bow of the ship lay visible on the reef while the rest of the ship sank. She lies on her starboard side with the stern at a depth of 32m. However, the propeller and rudder, which are intact, lie at 27m from where your...
Built in Britain in 1862, the Carnatic was a steamship with sails which operated both as a passenger and cargo vessel and plied a route between Suez and Bombay. On the night of 12th September 1869 in strong currents, she ran aground at Sha’ab Abu Nuhas. The following day, the weather deteriorated further and on the 14th September she broke up and sank, with the loss of 31 lives. At the time of her sinking, as well as carrying some 210 passengers and crew...
The Giannis D crashed into the reef at Sha’ab Abu Nuhas in April 1983 and sank with her cargo of timber. Originally built in Japan in 1969 and called the ‘Shoyo Maru’, at the time of her sinking she was owned by a Greek shipping company, Dumarc, hence the ‘D’ in her name
The true identity of the wreck usually referred to as the ‘Chrisoula K’ remains under debate. There are those who believe, in fact, that this wreck is actually that of a cargo ship called the Marcus, while there are others who are convinced that the Chrisoula K has, indeed, been correctly identified. However, what is known to be fact is that the Chrisoula K was built in Germany in 1954 and met her fate when she hit the reef at Abu Nuhas on 31st August 1981...
Abu Ramada is a wall dive ending in sandy bottom at about 60m. At the north of the reef there is a plateau , at which divers are often dropped for the dive. The current here can get quite strong and the blue sea along the wall is full with jackfish. Thanks to the soft corals and huge fan corals this is a very scenic wall.
Sha'ab Sheer reef is located SE from Safaga. It's a large reef where boats can stay for the night during cruises.
Coral Paradise is located on the west side of the reef.
The Salem Express was returning from the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with a party of pilgrims aboard who had visited Mecca when she struck the Hyndman Reef with full force on 15th December 1991. A large hole was torn in the hull just under the bow door and the bow door was forced upward and open, which let in gallons of water resulting in a very fast sinking of around 10 minutes. This meant that was little or no time to launch the lifeboats. According to official...
This island is the smaller of the two as the name implies. At the northern end is a long tongue of reef that extends seaward and in good weather it is possible to drop in here and drift. The current runs from east to west and here sharks may be seen cruising. On the south east side is a superb fan coral forest but it is deep and starts at 35m, there are also plenty of caves, overhangs, black coral, and lots of pelagics including sharks, tuna, barracuda, turtles and schools of reef...
The northerly of the two islands and has a small lighthouse. It has two wrecks laying on its walls. At the northern most tip of the island lays a large freighter named the Namibia, the other is the Aida II, an Egyptian supply vessel that struck at night. There is excellent wall diving all along the southern side of the reef with strong currents promoting the growth of a spectacular forest of soft corals. Frequent sightings of big pelagics and an astonishing variety of marine life.
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