Chrisoula K

Tiles. Thousands of them, stacked in the cargo holds like a warehouse floor that never arrived in Jeddah. The Chrisoula K sits almost upright on Abu Nuhas reef, her bow jammed into the coral at 3 metres and her stern angling down to sand at 28m. Most divers start deep at the propeller and rudder, both still in place after four decades, then swim forward along the hull past the engine room and bridge deck. The cargo holds are the centrepiece: open swim-throughs where sunlight catches the tile stacks and glassfish swirl around your torch beam. Lionfish hang motionless in every shadow. The bow section barely registers as a ship anymore. Coral has claimed it so thoroughly that reef and wreck blend into one structure, and this is where you do your safety stop.

Cargo tells you everything about this wreck before you even descend. The Chrisoula K is the Tile Wreck: hold after hold of Italian floor tiles, some with "Made in Italy" still readable on the surface after more than 40 years underwater. No other wreck in the Red Sea carries anything like it. But the tiles are only half the story. This wreck spans a full range from snorkelling depth at the bow to 28m at the stern, and that range creates two different dives on the same hull. The shallow sections host dense coral growth and reef fish; the deeper stern harbours the engine room, recorded as fitted with a 9-cylinder MAN diesel, accessible to experienced wreck divers through narrow passages. The workshop still contains a drill press, a lathe, and a galley oven. Forty years underwater and the tools are recognisable.

The Chrisoula K began as the Dora Oldendorff, a 3,720 GRT cargo ship built in 1953-54; the shipyard is disputed between two accounts (see FAQ). She sailed as the Anna B from 1970, then as the Chrisoula K from 1979 under Clarion Marine of Piraeus. On 31 August 1981, carrying a full cargo of Italian floor tiles bound for Jeddah, she struck the northeast corner of Abu Nuhas reef at full speed. Her bow drove into the coral and stood clear of the water before she sank by the stern, and she was declared a total loss. All 21 crew were taken off by the Egyptian Navy and landed at Suez; no one was lost. A few divers have raised the idea that this hull might actually be a different wreck, the Marcus, with the true Chrisoula K lying deeper below.1

Two dives are the minimum to cover both the deep stern route and the mid-ship holds. The cargo hold swim-throughs are straightforward with clear exits. The engine room is a different matter. Restricted passages, structural obstructions, and significant silt-up potential make it suitable only for divers with wreck training. Bring multiple torches. Abu Nuhas sits in the open Strait of Gubal, so surface conditions can be rough even when the dive itself is calm below. Day boats from Hurghada take 2 to 2.5 hours each way. A liveaboard gives you time for multiple wrecks and avoids the long daily transit. Nitrox is worth having for the stern section at 26-28m.