Wreck

Underwater Military Museum

Aqaba, AQ, Jordan

Snorkeller-friendly reef top
Suitable for beginners
Best for advanced divers
Night dives possible
Great for macro photography

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Type

Wreck

Max depth

28 m

Level

Advanced

DepthJeeps at about 7m; armor 15-20m; artillery and helicopters 25-28m

Location10 km south-southwest of Aqaba, 6.7 km down the coast from the TriStar. Dived from a shore platform or by boat.

ConditionsCalm, with visibility usually 25 to 30 m and only light surge. The shallow end is within snorkeling reach and the deep end at 28 m needs advanced certification, so the level required depends on how far down the line the dive goes.

Overview

The vehicles are laid out in battle formation. When the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority put twenty-one decommissioned machines on the seabed in 2019 it did not scatter them: it arranged them as an advance, and depth stands in for distance. Willis jeeps sit at the front in about 7 m, the armor follows through 15 to 20 m, and the artillery and two Bell AH-1F Cobra helicopters hold the rear at 25 to 28 m. The hardware is British, American and South African, and the Jordanian Armed Forces ran all of it until 2000. It is the first underwater military museum in the world.

Dive plan

Entry is from a shore platform at the north end, and the descent crosses a seagrass bed before the first vehicles come into view. The ground then slopes gently south, and the dive follows the formation down it. The order is the point. The Willis jeeps are shallowest at around 7 m. Reconnaissance and armor occupy 15 to 20 m: five FV701 Ferret scout cars, FV101 Scorpion light tanks, an FV103 Spartan carrier, Chieftain tanks and a Ratel-20. The deepest ground at 25 to 28 m carries the support and the firepower, two M42 Duster anti-aircraft guns, an M1 155 mm field gun, a Chieftain recovery vehicle, an unarmed FV104 Samaritan ambulance and the two Cobra helicopters. Gas usually runs out before the formation does, so the turn point is decided on the surface rather than at 28 m. The site is also run from a boat and is dived at night.

What to see

The ground was picked because there was no coral on it, which is the whole justification for the museum: it moves divers off the natural reef and onto steel that cannot be damaged. Corals and sponges have since taken the hulls, so the vehicles are slowly becoming the thing they were put there to protect. Reef fish school around the turrets and gun barrels, octopus hold dens inside the hulls, and lionfish work the shadows underneath. Garden eels stand out of the seagrass on the way in and drop into it as divers cross. Moray eels, shrimps and nudibranchs are on the machines themselves.