Chrisoula K
Also known as The tile wreck
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.
- Built
- Built 1954 in Lübeck as the Dora Oldendorff
- Lost
- 31 August 1981 — Ran onto Sha’ab Abu Nuhas at full speed
- Ship
- Greek-registered freighter, 98m
- Depth
- 3–26m
- Diving it
- Day boat from Hurghada or El Gouna; the shallowest of the Abu Nuhas group
What happened
She was built in Germany in 1954 and had been through several names before ending up Greek-registered and carrying a cargo of Italian floor tiles from Livorno to Jeddah.
On 31 August 1981 she hit Abu Nuhas at full speed with, by most accounts, the captain asleep and the reef showing on nobody’s watch. The bow crumpled into the reef and stayed there; the crew were taken off without loss.
There is a long-running argument in Red Sea diving about which wreck at Abu Nuhas is which, and the Chrisoula K sits at the centre of it — some sources hold that the bow section belongs to another ship, the Marcus, entirely. The tiles are not in dispute, and neither is the diving.
What is down there
- Holds still stacked with Italian floor tiles, in their original bundles
- The engine room, large and reasonably lit, with the workshop and tools in place
- The bow crushed hard into the reef in three metres of water — a good safety stop
- The propeller and rudder at the stern in 26m
Conditions
- Shallow across most of the ship, so bottom times are generous
- Usually the calmest of the four because more of the ship lies in the reef’s lee
- Good visibility and plenty of natural light
What to watch out for
- The tiles are loose in places and shift under a careless fin, which silts the hold out in seconds.
- The engine room is inviting and still an overhead environment.
Is it worth it?
Yes, particularly as a first wreck. Nobody would cross a continent for it, but as the second or third dive of an Abu Nuhas day it earns its place.
This is planning and history, not a dive briefing. 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.
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.
- SS ThistlegormAdvanced
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.
- 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
- SS ThistlegormIntermediate
A British war freighter still loaded with the equipment of an army that never received it — motorcycles, trucks, rifles and two railway locomotives — and the best-known wreck dive in the world outside Truk Lagoon.
- 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.
- 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