'Cursed' sinkhole dubbed 'divers' cemetery' has killed 100s – and bodies still lie there
dailystar.co.uknatural wonders of the world and a majestic "underwater cathedral" of spellbinding beauty.But to the unsuspecting tourist it can mean death itself, the 120 meter-deep sinkhole having apparently claimed hundreds of lives over the years.Indeed, it's not for nothing that the Blue Hole in the Red Sea, off the Egyptian coast, has earned itself the nickname of "the divers' cemetery".And it's believed there are still unrecovered bodies at its bottom even today – just as there are those of climbers who perished on Everest which cannot be safely recovered.
It's a fitting analogy because The Blue Hole is to scuba what such fearsome and treacherous peaks are to mountaineering.Its sheer depth and disorientating structure – including a cavernous 26-meter long tunnel – often causes nitrogen narcosis, a condition resulting from breathing certain gases at high pressure.Sufferers experience a sense of confusion not unlike a drunken high and are often left unable to tell up from down.
Dubbed 'the rapture of the deep', some have recounted seeing a bright light which they've swum towards, wrongly believing it to be the ocean's surface.
In reality though, they're just descending deeper and deeper, resulting in many unfortunately losing their lives.In 1997, the interlocked bodies of two young Irish divers were recovered from the Blue Hole, the pair seemingly entwined in an eternal embrace.
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