Diving in Qaitbey

As some of you may remember, Kristal and I got PADI certified in Scuba Diving last October/November.  You can refresh your memory here and here.  Anyway, one of the things we’ve wanted to do since we arrived in Egypt is do an archeological dive.  One of the best sites around is just outside of Qaitbey near the old Fort.  It is here that centuries ago old Alexandria stretched out further than it does today.  Over time, earthquakes, rising sea level, etc. has caused much of the old shore to now be under several feet of water.  Unfortunately, Kristal had not been feeling well, so in her best interests, she hung out with several of the girls in Agami while I dove with our friends Mike, Frank, & Jane.

Surprisingly, it’s not terribly deep.  Our first dive had a maximum depth of only 10 meters, or about 33 feet.  Here we saw some remains of the old lighthouse pillars, several Greek, Roman, and Pharonic remains, and even swam through a tunnel created by the fallen objects.  Unlike our certification dives, we also saw several types of fish and such.  I have to say – it was pretty darn awesome looking at all of these remains.  Jane and our guide, Mr. Sayed, even danced on one of the tables down below.  

The second dive was a mix of archeological remains and an old wreck.  It was only 5 meters deep.  However, visibility just flat sucked and it was hard to keep everyone within eyesight some times.  You could see their outline, then the next second they were gone and two seconds later it was all clear.  It was quite important to pay attention to direction and orientation, but nobody was ever worried about losing anyone else. Anyways, we got to see an old WWII plane that crashed in the bay only a couple hundred meters from shore.  You could still identify the cockpit, wings, engines, etc. but you could also see where parts of the tail had been ripped apart in the crash.  We even saw an ammunition pack of still live bullets and a helmet (was it planted or not?) left at the site.  From there we saw a few more pillars and blocks similar to the first dive.

One interesting thing to note is that several of the blocks we saw had thick, heavy ropes tied around them and numbered tags.  We asked Mr. Sayed and he said that those blocks are tagged to be removed from the water soon.  You probably heard about the big news here earlier this year when they removed a 4 ton pylon from another underwater temple in a near by bay.  You can read about it here.

After we finished, we rode back to the dive shop and then headed back home.  During the dive, I didn’t seem to notice that I was working very hard at all.  There were some minor currents since we were in a bay area and very close to shore.  It wasn’t until after I got home that I was SO tired I couldn’t sleep.  I ended up spending all day Saturday resting and recovering…I need to get in better condition!  However, the dive is very worthwhile and definitely on our list of things to do when we come back to Egypt for a visit.  Kristal is sad she missed it but, Insha’Allah, she will have the opportunity again.