El Mina (Hurghada wreck)

Good to know

Best season

Year-round. Water 22-29 C; calmest seas and best visibility March-November, with the coolest water and strongest northerlies December-February.

Protected status

Egyptian Red Sea marine protected area; HEPCA-maintained mooring buoys, anchoring prohibited

Fees

No separate site fee published; environmental tax historically 3.5 LE/diver/day (Red Sea Governorate, 2001), collection suspended after January 2011 per HEPCA.

Wreck

ship_type: T-43 class ocean minesweeper of the Egyptian Navy; builder: Soviet shipyards (Leningrad / Kerch); the class was also licence-built in Poland and China; year_built: Delivered to Egypt spring 1956; length_m: 58.0; tonnage: 500 tonnes standard, 569 tonnes full load; date_sunk: 6 February 1970; cause: Attacked by Israeli aircraft off Hurghada during the War of Attrition, probably while clearing the way for a strike on a nearby radar station. A bomb struck the starboard bow, she rolled over and was strafed before sinking.; cargo: Armament: four 37 mm guns, two 12.7 mm machine guns, a depth-charge launcher and capacity for up to 32 mines; orientation: Lying on her port side leaning on the superstructure, bow to the south. Around 19 m at the blast hole, 26 m at the bow, 32 m at the stern.; wreck_depth_m: 19-32; penetration: Yes - telegraph room, rope store, corridors, doors and portholes are all accessible, though the list makes orientation tricky.