Scuba Diving Shipwrecks in the Red Sea

Because the coral reefs of the Red Sea are treacherous to navigate, there are lots of shipwrecks all over it.

For Scuba divers, shipwrecks are like a magnet. The mystery of a wreck, and the fish species inhabiting it make them fascinating places.

There are several known wrecks off the Sinai peninnsula, in the Gulf of Aqaba, most of them cargo ships. There are others on the Egyptian eastern sea shores as well.

There are several off Jeddah as well.

One shipwreck south of Jeddah is that of a big cargo ship just off the reef drop off. I think the ship was called Mecca or something like that. A guy I know used to dive there to feed the sharks! One day, they started circling too fast in a feeding frenzy and they had to leave in a haste. The wreck was moving over the months, as we saw one mast sinking below the water level.

Shipwrecks can be dangerous for divers. One can get snagged in the wreck, and drown.

For me, I never went to a shipwreck, because with snorkeling, it is not not possibke to go that deep. Only in one place I think I came across a shipwreck remnants.

This is a group of broken pottery lying on the sea floor. This is in a small submerged bay south of Jeddah. I could not tell what the age of this vessel was, nor if it was associated with a shipwreck. The pottery are not the amphorae shape, but a large diameter vessel, as far as I can tell from its curvature and diameter. If this was from a shipwreck, then how ancient was it? Corals did not grow on it, which they would do in a matter of a few years. They are covered by sand, so maybe that is why? I took a chunk home to further analyse it, but could not get any info from that. I think I left it behind when I left Saudi Arabia.