Abu Galawa Kebir

The main attraction of Abu Galawa Kebir is a World War II wreck: the Chinese tug Tien Hsing, also called Tienstin. Built in 1935 at the Ta Chung Hua shipyard in Shanghai, this Chinese-registered steam tug was 35.98 m long, with a 7.35 m beam and 268 t. She was seized by British forces in 1941 and, on 26 October 1943, was sailing from Suez to Massawa, in Eritrea, when she ran aground and sank at Abu Galawa Kebir. The cause of the grounding is still unknown, and it is not known whether anyone was injured or killed.

The hull lies diagonally on the reef, and the bow even shows above the water at low tide. Because it does not rest fully on the reef, you can pass underneath the hull near the stern, and next to the bow there is a small cave. The tug is fully covered with bouquets of soft and hard corals, and on the port side the growth is so dense that it is hard to tell it apart from the reef.

The name Abu Galawa Kebir means 'big lagoon'; the system has two large reefs, and the wreck lies on the south reef. On the outer side of the reef there are large schools of snapper and bannerfish among coral gardens. To the west is the 'Fuchur' rock, named for its resemblance to the character from the film 'The NeverEnding Story'. To the north, a sandy-bottomed lagoon surrounded by corals connects through a passage to a second, smaller lagoon, and blue spotted stingrays and snails are often seen on the bottom of both. In the Hamata region, the best season tends to run from May to October, with less wind and calmer seas.