Northern Wrecks & Reefs

Dive areas you may visit on this itinerary:

SS. Thistlegorm – Shaab Ali

Probably the most famous of the Red Sea wrecks. The 129m English Freighter was bombed by German aviation on 6th October 1941. Today she creates an artificial reef on a sandy bottom at 32m max depth. She is home to an enormous variety of marine life and is especially popular with large schooling fish.

Small Crack - Shaab Mahmoud

This is a small split in the middle of Shaab Mahmoud’s barrier. Drift along the outside wall next to beautiful corals and colourful fish. Look for a sand slope that leads you up and through the crack. When the current is right you can fly through the 5m deep channel and be thrown out across the sandy lagoon!

Gubal Island

At the gate of the Straits of Gubal is ‘Bluff Point’, which gets its name from the turbulence created by strong currents that beat the eastern wall of the island. The wreck of the ‘Ulysses’ lies on the reef 300m north of the lighthouse, starting at 5m and sloping to 25m. 'The Barge' wreck, south of the lighthouse, provides divers with a fun and unusual night dive. The wrecks skeleton creates protection for all types of night creatures.

Abu Nuhas

Also known as the ‘Ships Graveyard’, this reef is dangerously positioned close to the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Suez. This reef has claimed more ships than any other in the area. On the north side are four wrecks laying on a sandy seafloor at the bottom of a steep sloping reef layered with table corals. Wrecks here include the Ghiannus D, Carnatic, Tile & Lentil Wrecks. On the south side is a safe anchorage for liveaboards and two ergs, known as Yellow fish reef.

Shag Rock

This large circular reef is often overlooked but offers excellent diving on pristine coral from any location on its perimeter. Ras Mohammed national park is not standard within this safari but may be visited at the discretion of the crew. Please enquire if you would like to visit this area.

Ras Mohammed National Park

The Ras Mohammed National Park is located at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It was declared a protected area in 1983. The jewel in the is Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef. Shark Reef offers the chance to dive with grey and black tip reef sharks. It is also home to huge numbers of reef fish and some larger pelagics such as tunas. Yolanda Reef is named after the shipwreck. On the plateau (10–25m) are scattered remains of toilets and baths. Anemone City is a wonderful shallow dive at 12m. The dive sites in Ras Mohamed offer an abundance of reef fish life, scorpion fish, multiple macro critters, hard and soft corals.

The Dunraven

The Dunraven was a Victorian steam and sail ship carrying spices, cotton and timber from India in 1876.  She hit the reef during a dispute between the Captain, his wife and his First mate. She sank beside the reef, upside down and broken in two parts, with the deepest part lying at 30m. Inside the wreck are schools of yellow goat fish and giant morays. The hull on the top is covered with corals and full of marine life, including schools of bat fish, nudibranchs, pipe fish and the very rare ghost pipe fish. 

Tiran Strait

The Strait of Tiran is the narrow sea passage between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas which separates the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea. These reefs, named after British cartographers (Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon), are world famous for their extraordinary diversity of corals and pelagics. They are visit on certain departures only.

Jackson Reef

The northern most reef in Tiran, Jackson Reef is well known for the Cypriot cargo ship “The Lara” which sank in 1985; some remains of the wreckage can still be seen on the top of the reef. The west site has a forest of spectacular gorgonian fan coral in 20-30m as well as many different kinds of reef fish. The most spectacular and colorful coral garden is at the southwest site at 15m. It is very common to see turtles, white tips and grey reef sharks.

Woodhouse Reef

The longest reef in the Strait of Tiran, Woodhouse is home to reef sharks and eagle rays. At the southern part of the reef is a wall to around 30m covered with coral from the surface all the way down. Along the reef is a canyon at 25m which spreads out into a coral garden with sand alleys.

Thomas Reef

The smallest reef in the strait. The ends are vertical walls with a large plateau at about 25m on the south eastern side. The plateau is covered in colourful coral and has a fence of gorgonian fans where you can find longnose hawkfish.

Gordon Reef

The most southerly reef of the four islands and has a different topography from the others offering both a shallow plateau area and drop offs. There is a huge variety of reef fish and the chance to see sleeping whitetip reef sharks on sandy patches. At 4-5m there is an eel garden. The top of the reef, with its lighthouse, is also home to the wreck Louilla which lays almost parallel to the wreck on Jackson Reef.

The Rosalie Moeller

A British cargo ship transporting coal, was bombed and sunk in October 1941 by a German air attack. Now she lies 55m on a sandy bottom. The main deck lies at 35m. In the deeper part of the wreck are the huge rudder and propeller as well as ladders and handrails all along the main deck. Hard and soft corals cover the hull. This artificial reef attracts an interesting variety of marine life with barracudas, tunas, jacks, trevallies, glass fish, scorpion fish and groupers. This wreck is only dived on occasion due to its depth.

Select departures in the northern Red Sea follow an adapted Get Wrecked itinerary. While following the same route, these itineraries have a greater focus on the superb wreck diving this region has to offer. Wrecks you may have the opportunity to dive on these departures include:

El Mina, an Egyptian mine sweeper lying just outside Hurghada's harbour; Suzanna (or Excalibur), a small pleasure yacht; the Carnatic; the tile wreck; the lentil wreck and Giannis D at Abu Nuhas. At Gubal Islands: the Barge; the Ulysses (sunk in 1887) and the Rosalie Moller; the Kingston (or Sarah H, sunk in 1881) lying at Shag Rock; the Carina (sunk in 1926) lying close to Shaab Ali and, of course, the Dunraven (sunk 1876) at Beacon Rock situated in the Ras Mohamed National Park and the most famous wreck in the Red Sea, the Thistlegorm, which lies at Shaab Ali.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: You must be an Advanced Open Water diver or equivalent and have logged a minimum of 30 dives to join this safari.