SS Thistlegorm
A British armed merchant ship sunk by air attack in 1941, still holding its wartime cargo of motorcycles, trucks and rifles. Widely considered one of the best wreck dives in the world.
- Depth
- 16–32m
- Access
- Long day boat from Hurghada or El Gouna, or — far more commonly — a liveaboard itinerary
- Best season
- Year-round on liveaboards; day trips from Hurghada depend on sea state and make for a very long day
- Level
- Advanced
The Thistlegorm was carrying supplies for the Allied campaign in North Africa when German bombers found her at anchor in the Strait of Gubal in October 1941. She sank with her holds full, and that cargo — Norton and BSA motorcycles, Bedford trucks, rifles, rail cars, boots — is why divers still travel for her.
The standard plan is two dives: one around the outside to see the scale of the break and the deck guns, and one through the holds where the cargo sits. Bottom times are constrained by depth and current rather than by anything else.
Nothing else in the Red Sea delivers the same thing. It is not a reef dive with a wreck on it; it is a historical site you swim through, and it rewards knowing something about what you are looking at before you go in.
Conditions
- Current is the defining factor and can be strong; dives are usually run down a shot line
- Two dives is standard — an outside orientation, then the holds
- The site gets extremely busy in season, with many boats moored simultaneously
What you are likely to see
- Large schooling batfish and trevally around the structure
- Resident groupers and lionfish
- The wreck itself is the attraction rather than the marine life
What to watch out for
- The cargo holds are an overhead environment. Divers do enter them routinely, but "routinely" is not "safely without training" — go with a guide who knows the layout.
- It is a war grave. Nine crew died here. Taking souvenirs is theft, and it is also the reason parts of the wreck are more stripped than they should be.
- Strong current plus a busy shot line is the real hazard, more than the depth.
- CDWS rules (since November 2023) set a minimum of 20 logged dives for this site and ban touching the wreck; boats must moor on rope at designated points, never wire.
This is planning information, not a dive briefing or a substitute for one. Conditions change; your guide on the day is the authority. Diving emergency numbers and the coast’s recompression chambers are on our emergency contacts page.
Dive centres in Hurghada
Listed by the desk, in alphabetical order. Nobody pays to be here.
Aquarius Diving Club
Dive CentreHurghada
Official site ↗On the map
Blue Water Dive Resort
Dive CentreHurghada
Official site ↗On the map
Colona Dive Center Hurghada
Dive CentreHurghada
Official site ↗
Dive Base Academy
Dive CentreHurghada
On the map
Diver's Lodge
Dive CentreHurghada
Official site ↗PhoneOn the map
Diving Club Golden Dolphin
Dive CentreSheraton Road · Hurghada
Official site ↗PhoneOn the map
Also in this bay — Hurghada
Dive sites
- Careless ReefIntermediate
Two pinnacles north-east of Giftun with a dramatic drop-off, long known for moray eels and for currents that decide the dive plan.
- Sha’ab Abu NuhasIntermediate
A shallow reef at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez that has claimed at least four ships — the Giannis D, Carnatic, Chrisoula K and Kimon M — all divable in a day.
- Giftun IslandsBeginner
Hurghada’s house reefs: a cluster of sheltered sites in a protected area, where most of the coast’s divers make their first Red Sea dive.
Wrecks
- Giannis DIntermediate
The most photographed wreck at Abu Nuhas, and the most disorienting: the whole stern section lies canted hard over, so every corridor inside it runs at an angle your inner ear refuses to accept.
- SS CarnaticIntermediate
A Victorian P&O steamer that has been on the reef since 1869, so thoroughly colonised that her ribs now read as architecture rather than as a ship. The oldest wreck dived on this coast.
- Chrisoula KBeginner
The one carrying Italian floor tiles, still stacked in the holds forty years later. The shallowest and most forgiving wreck at Abu Nuhas, and the one novice wreck divers should meet first.
- Kimon MAdvanced
Carrying lentils from Turkey to India when she hit the reef in 1978. The deepest and least visited of the Abu Nuhas wrecks, because she sits where the weather does.
- Rosalie MollerTechnical
The Thistlegorm’s forgotten sister in the same story: bombed by the same squadron two nights later, sunk in the same anchorage, and left almost perfectly intact in 50m — which is why almost nobody sees her.
Snorkelling
- Giftun IslandsBoat trip
Hurghada’s standard day trip, and for good reason: proper coral gardens in a protected area, 45 minutes out of the marina.
Kitesurfing
- HurghadaImprover
Wind, schools and cheap lessons in and around the city — less refined than El Gouna, considerably cheaper, and more variable.
The town guide for Hurghada