Wrecks, submarines and artificial reefs in the Red Sea

500m south of the Elat, in the small chunk of Israel that borders the Red Sea, sits a sunken missile submarine. Ordered from France in the 60s and embargoed by the French in the lead up to the Six-Day War, the Sufa was ‘liberated’ by a team of Israeli commandoes under cover of darkness. Escaping the Mediterranean and rounding the horn of Africa it then used the great depths of the Red Sea rift valley for concealment before emerging at its new base in Israel.

Despite an outcry from the French, the missile boat was in service for two decades before being retired. In 1994 – and by now long out of service – she was scuttled as an artificial reef. With such a short coastline Israeli reefs are very busy; Israeli divers then went and proved it by getting into the Guinness Book of Records for squeezing 150 divers inside.

To the east and in Jordanian waters, the Lebanese registered Cedar Pride sits at 25m. Just after her launch a fire broke out in the cargo of potassium and phosphates (some of Jordan’s main exports). The flames raged for several days – but the ship didn’t sink. Instead the Jordanians scratched their heads for several years before the World Wildlife Fund got involved. If you need something doing in Jordan then there’s nothing more useful than knowing the king; in 1986 with his blessing it was towed out to sea and sunk as an artificial reef.