212 sites, 21 localities
Dive sites
212 dive sites and 21 localities
Localities one place, several dives
Ċirkewwa
Cirkewwa, Malta
Cominotto
Comino
Dwejra
Gozo
Exiles
Malta
Għar Lapsi
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Marsaskala
Malta
Qawra Point
Malta
Ras il-Hobz
Gozo
Dive sites
Azure Reef
Dwejra, Gozo
The Azure Window fell into the sea in March 2017 and left behind a mountain range of raw limestone blocks that runs from just under the surface to past forty metres. It is the newest famous dive in Malta and it is still settling.
Billinghurst Cave
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A vast dark tunnel bored into Gozo's north cliffs, entered at around 28 metres and running roughly 100 metres into the rock before opening into a domed chamber with a gas pocket at the top.
Blue Hole
Dwejra, Gozo
A limestone sinkhole on the edge of the Dwejra headland, sheltered enough to step into and beautiful enough that it keeps winning best dive of the Mediterranean polls. An arch at nine metres lets you out into the open sea.
Ċirkewwa Arch
Cirkewwa, Malta
A natural stone span at 12 m with eight metres of clear water beneath it, reached along a reef wall stitched with short caves and tunnels. One of the best beginner dives anywhere in the Mediterranean.
Coral Cave
Dwejra, Gozo
A huge, well lit cavern cut into the Dwejra wall, its ceiling and sides upholstered in colourful corals. The mouth starts around seventeen metres and runs down to the seabed near thirty.
Coral Gardens
Sliema, Malta
Sliema's canyon reef: narrow rock valleys, odd formations and short swimthroughs in 15 metres or less, right next door to Fortizza Reef.
Coral Gardens
Dwejra, Gozo
The shallow limestone amphitheatre just around the corner from the Blue Hole, full of fish, colour and light, and the top end of a chimney that rises out of the mid twenties.
Double Arch
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
Two enormous natural arches stacked one above the other on an offshore reef north of Xwejni, with barracuda hanging over the top and the ground falling away to 45 metres and beyond. The best-looking deep reef dive on Gozo's north coast.
East Reef
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
The sunny, shallow half of Ras il-Hobz: a gently stepping reef off the eastern side of the headland that rarely passes 20 metres and makes an easy second dive or a relaxed training site.
Exiles Reef
Exiles, Malta
The natural half of the Exiles site: a shallow limestone reef cut by narrow gullies and overhangs, wrapped in Posidonia and busy with small fish. Twenty metres is about as deep as it gets.
Finger Reef
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
A long, narrow reef running out from Għar Lapsi with a small colourful wall, a plateau with a swim-through, and a cave you exit through a hole in the roof. Twenty metres at the deepest.
Fortizza Reef
Sliema, Malta
The best-structured of the Sliema shore reefs: caverns, arches, tunnels and gullies carved into the limestone below the old battery, none of it deeper than about 15 metres.
Fra Ben Cave
Qawra Point, Malta
A short, shallow cavern with an open ceiling on the north side of Qawra Point, complete with a rock in the middle to swim around and a blowhole to surface in. Perfect on a sunny day and genuinely beginner friendly.
Għar Lapsi Cave
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Forty-odd metres of wide, shallow cave running from the cove out to the open sea, lit by cracks in the ceiling that turn the passage into a light show on a sunny morning.
HMS Maori
Valletta, Malta
The forepart of a Tribal-class destroyer lying half buried in sand at sixteen metres in St Elmo Bay, reachable from a ladder and shallow enough for a newly qualified diver. Malta's most accessible piece of the war.
Inland Sea & Tunnel
Dwejra, Gozo
You kit up in a puddle and come out on a wall. An eighty metre tunnel through the headland links a shallow lagoon to the open Mediterranean, and swimming through it is one of the great theatrical moments in Maltese diving.
Le Polynesien
Malta
A hundred and fifty metres of French ocean liner lying on her port side east of Marsaskala, torpedoed in the last summer of the First World War. Deck structures start at forty five metres and the sand is at sixty five.
Middle Finger
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
Gozo's most famous pinnacle, a single column of coralline limestone whose splayed summit sits around 8 to 10 metres down while its outer face drops past 90 metres into the dark.
MV Cominoland
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
A thirty-five metre wartime minelayer turned tourist cruiser, sunk upright on sand at forty metres. Smaller and further out than the Karwela, which is exactly why some divers prefer it.
MV Karwela
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The most dived wreck in Gozo, and deservedly: a fifty-metre ferry sitting dead upright on sand at forty metres with a staircase that every underwater photographer in the Mediterranean has shot.
P29
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 52 m East German built patrol boat sitting upright on sand at 34 m, reachable on a shore dive from Ċirkewwa. Clean, photogenic and probably the most satisfying wreck in Malta for the effort involved.
P31
Comino
A 52 m ex-East German minesweeper sitting upright on white sand off Comino's west coast, deck at 12 m and keel at 20 m. Easily the friendliest wreck in the islands, and shallow enough that snorkellers can see the whole thing.
P33
Marsaskala, Malta
A former Cold War patrol boat sunk between the Marsaskala tugs in 2021, now broken into pieces by winter storms and dived as a scattered wreckage field at around 20 metres.
Qawra Bay
Qawra Point, Malta
The sheltered shallow bay on the south side of Qawra Point, two to ten metres of sand and seagrass, and the place half of Malta learns to dive. Unglamorous, dependable, and better on fish than it has any right to be.
Reef
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
The shallow rock shelf just outside Xwejni Bay, 5 to 15 metres of ledges, grass and small canyons. Nobody travels to Gozo for it, but it is a lovely second dive, a reliable night dive and a forgiving classroom.
Rozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 33 m Grand Harbour tug scuttled in 1992, sitting upright and remarkably whole on sand at 34 m with her mast reaching up to 20 m. Malta's most dived wreck, and deservedly so.
Shrimp's Cave
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A small chamber tucked into the wall west of Reqqa Point whose ceiling glitters with thousands of shrimp. Turn the torch off for a second and you can hear them.
St. Michael
Marsaskala, Malta
A Canadian-built wartime Tanac tug scuttled off Żonqor Point in 1998, lying upright in 22 metres and reached on the same shore dive as Tugboat 10.
Submarine Cave
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
A long, winding cave on the offshore wall between Xwejni and Qbajjar. The mouth yawns at about 21 metres and the floor runs back and down into silt at 34 metres, which makes it a serious dive dressed up as a reef swim.
Susie's Pool
Cirkewwa, Malta
A sheltered rocky pool and six metre plateau where half of Malta has learned to dive, with a reef wall dropping to 30 m and a Madonna statue tucked in a cave at 18 m.
The Point
Reqqa Point, Gozo
The tip of the Reqqa headland itself: a sheer limestone face where the reef ends and the deep water begins, with the biggest fish on this coast patrolling the corner.
Tug 2
Exiles, Malta
A 30 m Grand Harbour tugboat put on the bottom off Exiles in 2013, sitting upright at 22 m with an open wheelhouse and engine room you can swim through.
Tugboat 10
Marsaskala, Malta
A little Grand Harbour tug sunk on purpose in 1998, sitting upright in about 21 metres of water a short swim from the Marsaskala shore, and usually dived back to back with her neighbour St. Michael.
Um El Faroud
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
A 110 metre Libyan tanker sitting upright on sand at 36 metres, reachable on a shore dive, and broken clean in two by a winter storm. If Malta has one signature wreck for recreational divers, this is it.
Washing Machine
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
A small U-shaped notch in the salt pan shelf west of Xwejni that gives straight onto a rocky plateau at 8 metres. The name is a warning as much as a joke: in winter the sea churns in the notch exactly like a drum on spin cycle.
West Reef & Caves
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
The right-hand reef out of Wied iż-Żurrieq, all drop-offs, ledges and boulder gullies, with two caves and a brass diving helmet sitting on the sand at 28 metres.
Anchor Bay Reef
Anchor Bay, Malta
A tumble of cliff fallen limestone blocks on both sides of the bay, stitched together with sand channels and Posidonia, making short swim throughs and cracks that are absolutely stuffed with small life. Twelve metres at the deepest.
Anchor Bay Training Area
Anchor Bay, Malta
The sheltered inner corner of Anchor Bay behind the jetty, one to six metres deep over sand, rock and seagrass. This is where a lot of people in Malta take their very first breath underwater, and where everyone else finishes their dive.
B-24 Liberator Bomber
Malta
An American four engine heavy bomber that ditched off southern Malta in May 1943, found again in 2015 and opened to permitted technical divers in 2020. It lies upright on sand at about 55 metres with both wings spread and the engine nacelles unmistakable. It is also a war grave.
Blat ta' Bologna
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
A proper deep wall and drop-off just outside Mgarr ix-Xini, falling past fifty metres with big fallen boulders strewn along its foot. The grown-up dive of this stretch of south coast.
Cathedral Cave
Gozo
Swim into a five-metre entrance on Gozo's north coast, follow the passage up, and surface inside an enormous domed chamber with fifteen metres of air above your head. Take the regulator out and listen to everyone else laughing.
Crib
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Life sized nativity figures cut from sheet steel, standing under a rock overhang at about 22 m on the outer reef at Ghar Lapsi. Getting there is a reef and sand navigation exercise, and finding it is half the fun.
East Reef
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
Turn left out of the valley and the reef runs east for a few hundred metres as a broad ledge that tips over into a wall dropping past 30 metres. Big shoals, big visibility, and far fewer divers than the wreck.
Hephaestus
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
Gozo's newest big wreck: a sixty-metre bunkering tanker that wrecked itself on Qawra Point in a storm, then got a second career on the sand at Xatt l-Ahmar. Deep, upright and still sharp-edged.
HMS Southwold
Malta
A Hunt-class destroyer broken cleanly into two off Marsaskala, the bow on her starboard side around sixty eight to seventy two metres and the stern sitting upright at seventy three. Two very different dives on one ship, and probably the most dived of Malta's permitted deep wrecks.
HMS Stubborn
Malta
A sixty six metre S-class submarine sitting upright and beautifully intact on sand northeast of Qawra, top of the conning tower around forty five metres and the sand at fifty six. The best submarine dive in Malta and a rite of passage for local tech divers.
Inland Sea
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A roofless cavern at the top of Malta where the rock has fallen in and left a near-circular pool ringed by walls ten metres high. You can surface inside, take your regulator out and look straight up at the sky.
Kantra Caves
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
Two small caves set into the wall near the mouth of Mgarr ix-Xini, shallow enough for a newly certified diver and dark enough to make good backlit photographs. Worth doing as part of the bay, not as a special journey.
Middle Reef
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
A gentle patchwork of low reef, sand and seagrass a short swim out from the Ghar Lapsi cove, capped at around 12 m. It is the friendliest dive on this stretch of the south coast and a proper workout for your compass.
MV Imperial Eagle
Malta
The old Malta to Gozo ferry, sunk deliberately off Qawra Point in 1999 and sitting dead upright on sand at forty two metres. Nearby, an arch, a seventeenth century anchor and a bronze Christ with his arms out.
MV Xlendi
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
Gozo's first artificial reef, and the one that went wrong: an eighty-metre ferry that rolled during the scuttle and settled upside down at forty-two metres. Big, dark, strictly a look-but-do-not-enter wreck.
North Reef
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A long spine of rock running north off the tip of Malta, stacked with boulders, small canyons and swim-throughs before it slides away to thirty metres. Reachable from shore, much more pleasant from a boat.
North Reef & Arch
Qawra Point, Malta
Swim straight out north from Qawra Point and the rock slopes to ten metres before stepping down over a small reef, with a proper little arch at around 18 metres that divers can fly through. Seagrass, sand and good navigation practice.
Paradise Bay
Cirkewwa, Malta
The quieter half of Ċirkewwa: boulder fields, drop offs, seagrass and a shallow white arch lit up by sunlight, all in beginner friendly depths.
Ras il-Kanun
Gozo
A headland on Gozo's north coast where the rock breaks open into a big cave, with boulders, swim-throughs and a wall running out into deeper water. Usually dived together with the Cathedral Cave next door.
Rogers Cave
Dwejra, Gozo
Two rocks poke out of the water about thirty metres off the Dwejra shore, and underneath the larger one sits a coral lined cavern with a proper drop-off falling away beside it.
Santa Marija Caves
Comino
A shallow inlet on Comino's northern coast riddled with interconnecting grottoes, tunnels and swim-throughs, most of it in under twelve metres, guarded by a welcoming committee of saddled bream who assume you have brought lunch.
Santa Marija Reef
Comino
A low rocky reef off Comino's northern tip, cut through with gullies, caverns and swim-throughs, with schools of bream and mullet grazing the algae. Modest on its own, excellent when combined with the caves next door.
Scorpion Cave
Anchor Bay, Malta
A big, bright cavern on the south wall of Anchor Bay with an entrance wide enough that the exit never leaves your sight, plus an air pocket under a domed roof where you can pop up and grin at each other. One of the gentlest introductions to overhead diving in Malta.
Sirens
Malta
The shallow training reef of St Paul's Bay: a rock-cut pool, a channel out to open water, and a mixed bottom of boulders, sand and seagrass that never passes 12 to 15 metres.
Statue of Christ
Malta
A three metre concrete Christ standing on white sand at 35 m off Qawra Point, arms open and face tilted to the surface, with a rock arch, a seventeenth century anchor and the bow of the Imperial Eagle all within a few fin kicks.
Tal-Barba Cave
Dwejra, Gozo
A long, straight cave running about a hundred and twenty metres into the Dwejra wall from an entrance near twenty five metres, with an air pocket at the back and the exit in sight the whole way.
The Anchor
Anchor Bay, Malta
The feature the bay is named after: a three metre iron anchor lying on sand at eight metres, big enough to swim under and thickly furred with growth, with its chain trailing back toward the head of the inlet.
Tunnel
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
The doorway into the Aħrax inland sea. A short rock passage, dark from outside and glowing blue once you are in it, shallow enough that snorkellers can do it on one breath.
West Reef
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
The deeper, moodier flank of Ras il-Hobz, looking out towards Fessej Rock. The ground tips over into a proper slope past 30 metres, which is why technical classes queue up for it.
Whale Cave
Dwejra, Gozo
A long slot in the Dwejra cliffs that takes you in at 25 metres and keeps a ribbon of daylight overhead the whole way, so you get the theatre of a cave with the sky never quite gone. Rarely crowded, which in Dwejra is saying something.
Xatt l-Ahmar Reef
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The wall and boulder run along the southern edge of Red Bay, with caves and overhangs at the top and a drop-off falling to thirty. A proper dive in its own right, not just the road to the wrecks.
Xlendi Reef
Xlendi Bay, Gozo
A two-storey reef running off the headland in the middle of Xlendi Bay: an easy inner shelf at 12 metres for courses, and an outer spur with a pinnacle that almost breaks the surface before the ground falls away past 60 metres.
Xlendi Tunnel
Xlendi Bay, Gozo
A 70 metre natural passage bored clean through the north headland of Xlendi Bay, shallow enough that you can pop your head up inside it and bright enough to photograph without a torch. For a lot of divers it is the first time they swim into rock and come out somewhere else entirely.
Alex's Cave
Cominotto, Comino
A big, smooth-walled cavern with a sandy floor, a chimney at the back that opens to daylight, and a boulder-strewn tunnel that runs through the headland toward Crystal Lagoon.
Anadrian
Malta
A forty metre working dredger sunk in 1999 and now sitting upright on sand at around 65 metres off the north east coast, squarely in trimix country. Short bottom time, long ceiling, and a boxy industrial hull that photographs beautifully in the blue.
Anchor Reef
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A long submerged ledge running east from Reqqa Point towards Double Arch: an easy plateau on top, a serious drop-off on the outside, and a namesake anchor that has gone missing.
Anchor Reef
Cominotto, Comino
A boulder wall on Cominotto's outer edge with a scatter of old anchors jammed in the gaps, holes and caverns underneath, and enough depth to make it an advanced first dive.
Armier Bay
Malta
A shallow sandy bay on the Marfa ridge with a very large Admiralty pattern anchor lying in about five metres and its chain vanishing under the seagrass. Not a spectacular dive, but a genuinely pleasant shallow potter with Comino on the horizon.
Benghisa Point
Malta
A rough and ready shore dive on the south coast below Fort Benghajsa, starting in a narrow rocky inlet and working out over Posidonia to twenty metres. There is a good arch close in, and there is a lot of boat traffic just offshore.
Benghisa Reef
Malta
A long ridge of rock about a kilometre off Benghisa Point that runs 1.5 km to the south east, topping out around ten metres and stepping down in drop offs toward fifty. Sporty, current prone, and the best chance of pelagics on this corner of the island.
Black John
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
The deepest and least visited of the Ghar Lapsi dives: an offshore reef that tops out in the twenties and slides on down to around 38 m, with an arch near the entry and a shimmering halocline courtesy of the desalination plant next door.
Bottleneck Cave
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A natural rock shaft that takes you in at 37 m and lets you out at the foot of the cliff near 58 m. It is a geology dive first and a fish dive a very distant second, and it belongs to trimix divers only.
Bristol Beaufighter
Malta
A twin engine RAF heavy fighter lying upside down on clean sand at 38 m, a short boat hop off St Julian's. Small, tidy and strangely moving, and over in one no stop bounce.
Bristol Blenheim Bomber
Malta
A Blenheim light bomber sitting upright on sand and low reef at 42 m off the southeast coast, ditched in 1941 with the whole crew walking away. Deep, current prone and worth the effort.
Calypso Cave
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
A collapsed cave roof on the offshore wall north of Marsalforn Tower, leaving two great holes bridged by a span of rock. You get in through narrow horizontal cracks at 21 and 32 metres and come out into a chamber more than 30 metres long.
Casper
Malta
An unidentified steam vessel found in 2014 off Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, broken and twisted across the sand at around 38 to 40 m. A genuine mystery wreck with a boiler as its centrepiece.
Cave
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A pocket cavern tucked into the very tip of Malta, sitting in five or six metres of water. Keep the rock on your shoulder, swim, and you will find it without a compass.
Comino's Delight
Comino
A quiet, shallow cavern run along Comino's northern shore, all sunbeams and swarming bream, with almost nothing written about it online.
Cominotto Rock
Cominotto, Comino
Cominotto's serious dive: a vertical wall that runs past forty metres onto white sand, with boulder caverns, swim-throughs, a four-pointed anchor and clouds of chromis over the top.
Crocodile Rock
Dwejra, Gozo
A low, crocodile shaped rock sitting offshore between Dwejra Point and Fungus Rock, with a shallow plateau on top, a natural amphitheatre carved into one side and a sheer wall that keeps going well past forty metres.
Crystal Lagoon
Comino
A cliff-walled inlet with a long, well-lit tunnel leading out to the open sea, plus boulders and overhangs. Beautiful water, modest reef, and a lot of boats above you.
Daħlet Qorrot
Gozo
A small pebbly cove on Gozo's northeast coast with fishermen's boathouses cut into the cliff, a slipway to walk down and shallow Neptune grass meadows offshore. Gentle, easy and quietly lovely.
Dawra tas-Sanap
Gozo
A boat dive tucked under the Sanap cliffs southwest of Gozo, where a big weathered archway, a roomy cavern and a near vertical wall break up into house sized boulders.
Delimara Cave
Delimara, Malta
A chimney rather than a cave in the usual sense: a shaft in the south reef that you enter down among the boulders and climb until daylight opens over the top of the rock.
Delimara Wreck
Delimara, Malta
A broken up barge scattered across sand and rock in less than 10 metres of water on the sheltered side of Delimara Point. A bonus dive rather than a main event, and none the worse for it.
Devil's Reef
Malta
A boat dive under the cliffs at Malta's northwestern corner, where a bright shallow plateau ends without warning in a wall that falls past 50 metres and keeps on going.
Dornier Wal XI
Malta
The remains of an interwar Italian flying boat lying on open sand in the middle of Ġnejna Bay, shallow enough to snorkel and one of the oldest aircraft you can dive anywhere in Malta.
Douglas A-1 Skyraider
Malta
An almost intact American attack aircraft sitting upright on sand at 96 metres off Benghisa Point. One of Malta's flagship deep trimix dives, and a permit-only site.
East Reef
Delimara, Malta
The friendly corner of Delimara Point: a shallow reef of low ledges and sand channels that makes a gentle, unhurried dive, provided the sea has been flat for days.
Elephant Rock
Comino
A natural limestone arch with a thirty-metre tunnel running through the headland behind it, all of it in six metres of water and lit like a stage set.
Fairey Swordfish
Malta
A Second World War biplane torpedo bomber sitting on sand at around 70 m off Sliema, its fabric long gone but the frame, engine and three-blade propeller still in place. Trimix, a boat and a Heritage Malta permit.
Fessej Rock
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
A black fang of limestone standing alone off Gozo's south coast, rising 15 metres into the air and dropping 60 metres below it. Boat only, and worth the ride.
Filfla
Malta
A protected islet five kilometres off Malta's southern cliffs, ringed by collapsed boulders that slide into water deeper than most people will ever dive. The best place in the archipelago for rays, and the worst place to pick anything up off the bottom.
Forna Point
Gozo
The first headland east of Wied il-Għasri, and one of the least visited walls on Gozo's north coast. Vertical drops on both flanks, a seabed paved with car-sized boulders, and the pleasant suspicion that nothing down there has seen a diver this month.
Fort St. Elmo
Valletta, Malta
A boulder-and-gully reef tucked under the seaward ramparts of Valletta's oldest fort, quietly ignored by everyone queueing for the Maori. Go early, before the walls throw the whole reef into shadow.
Fungus Rock
Gozo
A sixty metre pillar of limestone standing guard at the mouth of Dwejra Bay, with a sheltered lagoon on one side and a wall that drops past sixty metres on the other. One rock, two completely different dives.
Għar Ħasan
Malta
A boat dive beneath the tall southern cliffs near Birżebbuġa: a shallow rock plateau whose edges fall away steeply into the blue, with the famous land cave riddling the limestone overhead.
Għar id-Dar
Gozo
The famous House Cave on the Wied ir-Raħeb wall: a door cut into the cliff, a round window above it for the exit, and a black chimney at the back that surfaces in a sealed pocket of air. Strange, theatrical and very quiet.
Ghar it-Trozz
Malta
A big, serious wall on Malta's wild west coast, run through with fissures and a sponge lined cave, dropping from the cliff foot past 50 m and on beyond 70. Boat access only, and only when the weather behaves.
Ħalq Ħamiem
Gozo
A huge dry cave bitten out of the north coast cliff, with a shaft in its roof that runs all the way up to daylight. The dive starts in six metres of green light under that hole and works out over a boulder field to twenty.
Ħekka Point
Gozo
A north coast headland with two very different caves: a bright cavern split open to the sky at fifteen metres, and a fully submerged chamber further along whose walls are upholstered in untouched coral. Seahorses turn up here more often than they have any right to.
HM Drifter Eddy
Malta
A small steel minesweeping drifter sitting upright and lonely on sand at 56 m, a mile and a half off Fort St Elmo. She was hunting mines when one found her in May 1942, and the hole it made is still the way in.
HMD Trusty Star
Malta
A 1919 drifter turned wartime minesweeper lying on her starboard side at 90 m, three kilometres off Fort St Elmo. Found in 2016, opened to permitted technical divers in 2019, and still one of the least visited wrecks on the island.
HMS Hellespont
Malta
A Robust class paddle tug, bombed in Grand Harbour in April 1942, later filled with rubble and scuttled off Fort Rinella. She sits upright on sand with her deck at 35 m and the seabed at 41, minus the first fifteen metres of her bow.
HMS Kingston
Malta
A shallow scatter of steel in the channel between Selmun and St Paul's Island, all that is left of a K-class destroyer that survived a battleship's shell and then died in dry dock. Think easy scenic dive with a very good story rather than a wreck dive.
HMS Nasturtium
Malta
A First World War sloop that went minesweeping and found a mine the hard way off Valletta in April 1916. She lies at around sixty seven metres, big, coherent and one of the friendlier of Malta's permitted historic wrecks.
HMS Olympus
Malta
An Odin-class submarine lying upright and largely whole at around a hundred and fifteen metres, holding the worst British submarine loss of the war. Eighty nine died, nine swam seven miles home.
HMS Russell
Malta
A hundred and thirty two metre pre-dreadnought battleship lying completely upside down at around a hundred and ten to a hundred and fifteen metres, with her stern torn away and her guns scattered on the sand. The biggest thing on the Maltese seabed by a wide margin.
HMS St. Angelo
Malta
A twenty four metre Royal Navy tug, mined in May 1942 while sweeping, now sitting upright and tidy at fifty four metres just outside Grand Harbour. Small, complete and charming, with one large catch: she is parked in the shipping channel.
Ħondoq Reef
Hondoq, Gozo
The rocky ground on the eastern side of Ħondoq bay, where boulders and low arches break up the seagrass and a water pipeline heads off toward Comino. Twelve metres at its deepest and endlessly rummageable.
Il Mara
Malta
A boulder and rock dive under the high southern cliffs, a long ride from anywhere, with a scatter of cars that were tipped over the edge decades ago now doing duty as reef. Quiet, sporty, and rarely crowded.
Il-Margun
Gozo
Two enormous caves cut into a notch in Gozo's north coast cliff, running from near the clifftop down to the sea and carrying on below it, with a boulder seabed falling away to forty metres. Rarely visited and quietly spectacular.
Inner Cominotto
Cominotto, Comino
The gentle side of Cominotto: a shallow algae-and-seagrass shelf pocked with little caves, big enough that you need two dives to see both ends of it.
Inner Lantern Point
Lantern Point, Comino
The quieter half of Comino's southwest headland: a vertical wall that breaks up into car-sized boulders, with a narrow limestone fissure hiding a small cave. Deep, dark and usually empty of other divers.
Italian E-boat
Malta
A broken up fast attack craft from the siege years lying at 45 metres north of Zonqor Point, mixed in with a Corsair wing, a barge and assorted war debris. More of a treasure hunt than a wreck dive.
Junkers Ju 88 (North)
Malta
A German twin engine bomber from the siege of Malta lying on sand at about 55 metres, three kilometres off the north coast. Well preserved, tail broken off nearby, and divable only with a Heritage Malta permit through a registered centre.
Junkers Ju 88 (South)
Malta
The deeper of Malta's two Ju 88 bombers, sitting upright and almost complete on sand at 106 metres off Marsaskala. Trimix only, permit only, and one of the finest preserved aircraft wrecks in the Mediterranean.
L-Cave
Qawra Point, Malta
A tight L-shaped tunnel at 33 metres off Qawra Point, dark for the first ten metres and then opening up towards a lit exit at 36. Beautiful if you are calm and experienced, deeply unpleasant if you are not.
Levant II
Malta
A small cable ship sitting upright and largely whole at fifty nine metres, about a kilometre off the mouth of Grand Harbour. She spent ten years on divers' logs as simply the cable ship before anyone worked out her name.
Lighthouse Reef
Lantern Point, Comino
The outer face of Lantern Point: a wide chimney through the limestone plateau, huge boulder caverns below it, and a wall that keeps going past fifty metres. Only when the weather is perfect.
Lockheed P2V Neptune
Malta
A submarine hunter that never sank in anger. This RAF Neptune was broken on landing, sold to a film company and dumped off Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq as a movie prop, then lost for nearly sixty years until divers found it again in 2015.
Luciston Collier
Malta
A British coal carrier torpedoed in 1916 on her way to Malta, now lying beyond a hundred metres off the south east coast. A trimix expedition dive, permit only, with a deck gun still bolted down.
Marsalforn Bay
Gozo
A big, friendly, shallow bay on Gozo's north coast where most of the island's dive schools cut their teeth. Boulders, sand and seagrass in ten metres or less, and an octopus behind half of them.
Merkanti Reef
Malta
A twin ridge of reef breaking almost to the surface off St. Julian's, riddled with overhangs and crevices, divable shallow all day or reached by boat from the hotel strip.
Migra Ferħa
Malta
A wild cleft in the Dingli cliffs on Malta's south west coast, with a car graveyard, a boulder field, an archway and caves at every depth, and about 150 steps between you and your car.
Mini Blue Hole
Marsaskala, Malta
A collapsed sea cave on the Marsaskala coast joined to the open sea by a short swim-through, easy enough for new divers and irresistible for anyone with a camera.
Mosquito Fighter Bomber
Malta
A wooden warplane that has mostly gone back to the sea, leaving two engines and a cat's cradle of cable sitting upside down on sand at just over 40 metres off Delimara. Short, deep and atmospheric.
Mtahleb
Malta
A wild, barely visited stretch of the west coast under the cliffs, with big fallen boulders, caverns and a wall that keeps going past sport-diving depth. Most people end up at Migra Ferha instead, which is exactly why this one stays empty.
Munxar Cave & Reef
Malta
A long finger of rock running out from the Munxar headland with caves cut into its flanks, an arch at around 35 metres and walls dropping into the blue on both sides. Boat only, exposed, and worth timing properly.
MV Pippo
Malta
A stubby concrete-hulled tuna boat sitting upright on clean sand at around 35 metres off Malta's north-eastern tip, reached only by boat and enjoyed in short, tidy bites.
Newwiela Point
Gozo
The southernmost tip of Gozo, dived from a boat under towering cliffs. A shallow plateau for the shallow part of the dive, then a wall and boulder field that keeps falling past sixty metres.
ORP Kujawiak
Malta
A Hunt class escort destroyer lying on her port side at around 97 metres, six kilometres offshore, found in 2014 and opened to permitted technical divers in 2019. Intact bow, twin 102mm guns, and a stern crushed by the landing.
Qala Quarry
Gozo
A gentle boat dive on Gozo's east coast where a boulder-strewn reef slides from six metres down to thirty-five, with a handful of enormous old anchors lying among the rocks.
Qawra Reef
Qawra Point, Malta
The big one off Qawra: a reef top at 15 to 20 metres, a steep drop-off to 30 or 40, and a row of wide caverns cut back under the rock. Barracuda, amberjack and dentex patrol it and the visibility is usually superb.
Qui Si Sana
Sliema, Malta
The plain, practical end of the Sliema reefs, tucked under the Tigne seafront. Shallow, sheltered and mostly used for training and try dives.
Ras id-Dawwara
Malta
A rarely visited boat wall at the far western end of the Dingli cliff line, where 60 m of limestone above water carries on falling below it. Clear blue, honeycombed rock, and enough depth to keep you honest.
Ras il-Qala
Gozo
The easternmost point of Gozo, dived from a boat. A rocky shoreline gives way to a drop-off at around ten metres, then a boulder-littered sandy slope, all in very clear channel water.
Ras ir-Raheb
Malta
Malta's western elbow, where a cave you can swim into from the surface drops to 25 m and the cliff outside falls away past 70 m into open blue. One of the island's great big-water dives.
Rdum il-Qawwi
Malta
A jumble of huge fallen boulders under the Marfa ridge cliffs, stitched together by arches, swim-throughs and small caves in the shallows, with a slope that runs on to 45 m if you want it.
Rdum l-Ahmar
Malta
Massive boulders and swim-throughs on the wild corner of coast beside Ahrax Point, with amberjack cruising overhead and eagle rays turning up often enough to be worth watching for.
Rdum tal-Vigarju
Malta
A stepped west coast wall just south of Ras ir-Raheb that drops in stages to 50 m, with a small cave at the surface, a boulder field to the north and grouper wedged under every big rock.
Reef Beyond Rozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
The Cirkewwa wall keeps running north long after everyone else has turned around at the Arch. Out there it steepens into a proper deep face with overhangs, snagged netting and more than 40 metres of water under your fins.
San Dimitri Point
Gozo
The westernmost corner of Gozo, where a shallow reef platform gives way to house-sized boulders and then to open blue. Come for the big schooling fish and a wall that keeps going long after you have to stop.
Sanap Cliffs
Gozo
A hundred and twenty metres of golden cliff above you and a vertical wall below, with a cavern to poke your torch into and two small reefs flanking the drop. Colour, not fish, is the draw.
Schnellboot S-31
Malta
A German fast torpedo boat that struck a drifting mine off Valletta in May 1942 and went down with half her crew. She lies upright at 65 m with her torpedo tubes, engines and triple screws still in place.
Scotscraig
Malta
A stubby Scottish car ferry that ended her career as a film prop and now sits upright in 21 metres off Anchor Bay. Shallow, quiet and rarely visited, which is exactly why the fish like her.
Sikka l-Bajda
Malta
A big, wild offshore reef north of Malta with a drop-off that keeps falling past 70 metres. Open sea, open water, proper boat diving, and the closest thing Malta offers to a blue-water hunting ground.
Slugs Bay
Malta
A tiny cove on the north shoulder of Mellieha Bay with a rock arch, a lot of small life, fossil shark teeth in the shingle, and nothing deeper than about 12 metres.
Smugglers Cave
Malta
A shallow cave and swimthrough at the foot of the Rdum l-Ahmar cliffs on the north side of Marfa Ridge, with a boulder-strewn slope running out to 18 metres.
South Reef
Delimara, Malta
The best underwater scenery on the Delimara peninsula: a reef that steps off at 9 metres, cliffs down past 24 and spills into a boulder field the locals call Hell's Edge.
SS Margit
Malta
A hundred metres of broken 1912 steamer lying on the silt in Kalkara Creek, sunk by German bombers in 1941. A shore-entry wreck inside the Grand Harbour, with murk, history and very big grouper.
St Paul's Reef
Malta
A long rocky reef running seaward from St Paul's Islands, with a shallow inner shoulder, a stepped outer edge down to about 25 m and a narrow canyon cut into it. Boat only, and rarely busy.
Ta' Camma Caves
Gozo
A run of five caves set into a sharp cliff wall on Gozo's north western shoulder, with a boulder-strewn base, resident groupers, and one chamber where you can surface inside the rock from eighteen metres.
Ta' Cenc Reef
Gozo
A small platform at eight metres under the highest cliffs on Gozo, a steep algae-covered wall below it, big boulders at the base, and a cave on the way home with a bend in it worth finding.
Tac-Cawla Caves
Gozo
Four caves cut into a sheer north coast cliff, two of them running well over a hundred metres into the rock to air pockets sealed in by stone. Superb scenery, almost no fish, and a silt floor that punishes sloppy finning.
Ulysses Cave
Gozo
A big cavern in the cliff north west of Xlendi, a boulder slope beneath it, and a small cave with a freshwater spring that turns the water to shimmering haze as you swim through it.
Valley
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
The narrow rock-bottomed inlet everyone swims through on the way to somewhere better, and a genuinely good shallow dive in its own right. Best night dive on the south coast, and the corner that stays diveable when everything else is closed.
Wardija Point
Gozo
A near vertical and sometimes overhanging wall on Gozo's west coast, drilled with holes and fissures and piled with boulders below, tucked under a headland with a Punic sanctuary carved into it.
Wied Bassasa
Malta
A boat-only cave and wall on the quiet stretch of cliff east of the Blue Grotto, with a cavern whose mouth breaks the surface so you can start the dive already inside it.
Wied il-Mielah
Gozo
A limestone window arching out of the cliffs on Gozo's far north-west corner, with two caves, a swim-through and a barracuda-haunted blue just beyond. Boats only, and worth the ride.
Wied ir-Raheb
Gozo
A boat-only drift along Gozo's west-facing cliffs that threads three caves, the best of them entered through what looks unnervingly like a front door. Advanced, and a site to plan properly.
Wied Żnuber
Malta
A boat dive on the empty southern cliffs with a rocky maze full of fish, a Second World War aircraft in 35 metres and British army scrap the navy dumped over the side after the war.
X127 Lighter
Malta
A little WWII fuel lighter sitting upright on a harbour slope, bow shallow enough for a first wreck dive and stern deep enough to feel like a proper one. Shore access, five minutes of finning, and a hull that has been quietly turning into a reef since 1942.
Xatt l-Ahmar Bay
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The shallow half of Red Bay: a gentle rock and seagrass plateau just inside the ladders, ideal for training, check dives, a lazy second dive or a night dive while everyone else decompresses.
Xrobb l-Għaġin
Malta
A low-key boulder and seagrass dive off the Xrobb l-Għaġin headland near Marsaxlokk, better known as the shore access for the deep Blenheim bomber than as a dive in its own right. Clear water, quiet ledges, not a lot of drama.
Żonqor Point
Marsaskala, Malta
The low limestone headland guarding the north side of Marsaskala Bay, with easy shore-diveable reef on both flanks and a maximum depth of about twenty metres.
Zurziep Reef
Gozo
A small, colourful reef under the cliffs a short boat ride west of Xlendi, rising to a 5 metre platform and then sliding away past 60 metres. Gullies, overhangs and cavelets make it a photographer's site rather than a depth chase.
Blue Grotto Caves
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
Malta's most photographed sea caves, and almost nobody dives them. Shallow, luminous, and squarely in the path of every tourist boat on the south coast.
Blue Lagoon
Cominotto, Comino
Malta's most photographed stretch of water, and one of its least dived: three metres of white sand under absurdly blue water, with boat propellers overhead all summer.
Cargo Ship Camadan
Malta
A modern Turkish freighter that foundered in a storm in 2002 and now lies on her side in around 90 m of water east of Delimara. Strictly trimix, strictly for teams who plan properly.
Dragonara Point
Malta
A rarely dived rocky point on the St Julian's headland, listed in the older Malta site indexes with about 25 metres under it and almost nothing written about what is actually down there.
Fireworks Barge
Exiles, Malta
A 30 m firework launching barge that blew itself apart in 2009 and now lies upside down on sand at 10 m in St Julian's Bay. Shallow, odd, and almost nobody dives it.
Ġebel ġol-Baħar
Malta
A cluster of big boulders on an offshore plateau about 2 km off St Julian's, claimed in 1999 as a sunken megalithic temple and dismissed by archaeologists ever since. Boat only, top of the rocks at 19 m.
Ġebel tal-Ħalfa
Gozo
A small limestone islet just off the Qala coast that almost nobody dives. It is far better known to snorkellers and boat trippers than to anyone in a drysuit, and there is no published dive profile for it at all.
Harq Hamiem Cave
Malta
Malta's only known fully submerged terrestrial cavern, reached by a staircase rather than a boat, with two chambers stacked on top of each other and a floor that drops past fifty metres. Freshwater at the top, seawater at the bottom, and a shrimp that lives nowhere else.
HMS Andromeda
Malta
A little steam tug turned minesweeper, bombed while leaving Grand Harbour in April 1942 and still lying in the harbour mouth at 20 m. Shallow, intact enough to be interesting, and almost never dived because of where she is.
HMS Greetham
Malta
A wooden hulled 1950s minesweeper that became a Libyan patrol boat, then a Maltese tour boat in Kit Kat colours, then a wreck on her own moorings in Sliema Creek. Broken up as a navigation hazard in 2011, so there is very little left to dive.
HMS Jersey
Malta
What is left of a J class destroyer that hit a mine at the Grand Harbour entrance in May 1941 and blocked the port for days. Decades of demolition and salvage mean there is scattered wreckage at 19 m rather than a ship.
HMS Justified
Malta
A 90 metre trimix target out in the old Grand Harbour minefield ground, and easily the thinnest paper trail on the whole Malta list. Very few people have dived it and almost nothing about it is written down.
HMS ML 130
Malta
A Fairmile B motor launch shot to pieces by German S-boats a mile off the St Elmo breakwater in May 1942, now lying at around a hundred and ten metres. Wooden hull, so there is less left every year, and hardly anyone goes.
HMS P36
Malta
A U-class submarine bombed at her berth in Sliema in 1942, salvaged sixteen years later and dumped in deep water north of Malta. At around a hundred and forty metres she is the deepest divable wreck on the island, and barely anyone has been.
HMS Urge
Malta
A British U class submarine lost with all hands in 1942 and finally located in 2019, sitting upright on the seabed a few kilometres off the Grand Harbour approaches at around 130 metres. She is a war grave rather than a dive in the ordinary sense.
HMT Crownsin
Malta
A tiny requisitioned trawler, originally German and taken as a prize in 1915, mined off Malta in May 1916 with eleven of her crew. She is catalogued as a wreck but there is no evidence she has ever been dived.
HMY Aegusa
Malta
A Victorian steam yacht of real pedigree, once owned by the tea magnate Thomas Lipton, sunk by a mine off Malta in April 1916 and now lying at about 76 metres. Technical, boat only, and rarely visited.
Il-Qaws
Malta
A little visited cave and wall dive on Malta's exposed west coast, with colourful rock faces, a pair of caverns worth a torch, and depths that run past forty metres if you follow the wall down.
Martin Maryland
Malta
A wartime reconnaissance bomber lying inverted on sand at seventy metres off Marsaskala, located by sonar in 2020 and firmly in the realm of permitted technical diving.
Mistra Rocks
Gozo
A barely documented patch of rocky coast on Gozo's north side near Nadur. Listed in the site indexes, almost never dived, and there is not enough public information to plan it properly.
MV King Edwin
Malta
A Harland and Wolff motor cargo ship that burned in Grand Harbour in 1943, was raised after the war and dumped in deep water. She now lies past a hundred metres and is effectively undived.
Phoenician Shipwreck
Gozo
A Phoenician trading ship that went down off Xlendi in the late 7th century BC and has lain at 110 metres ever since, cargo still stacked. Archaeologically extraordinary, and closed to recreational diving.
Reef off Marija's Cave
Malta
An offshore reef edge west of the Gnejna cliffs that steps down in roughly fifteen metre drops from about 20 m to past 60 m. Barely dived, properly deep, and full of holes worth a torch.
Ricasoli Cannons
Malta
Three enormous Victorian muzzle-loading guns lying in a collapsed sea cavern under Fort Ricasoli, in two or three metres of water lit by a hole in the roof. Odd, shallow and unforgettable.
Schnellboot S-34
Malta
The sister boat to the S-31, shelled by Maltese coastal batteries in May 1942 and finished off by a German fighter the next day. She lies somewhere well offshore of Zonqor Point and, as far as public records go, nobody dives her.
Small World
Malta
A retired Captain Morgan party boat lying in about 103 metres of open water north of Malta. Trimix, serious surface support, and a wreck that almost nobody has seen.
Spitfire Mk Vc
Gozo
One of the very few diveable Spitfires anywhere, sitting upright on sand at around seventy metres off Qala. A ten minute look at a piece of 1943 that took seventy eight years to be found.
St Paul's Channel
Malta
The shallow gap between Malta and St Paul's Islands, a pale rocky trench a few metres deep that slides away towards 25 m where it opens to the sea. Easy, scruffy and almost never on a dive centre schedule.
Stoker Cave
Malta
A big cave under the Dingli Cliffs with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and a freshwater layer in the roof that smears the view like oil on glass. Entrance at 19 m, sand at 30 m, boat only.
Submarine Pen
Malta
A forty metre natural tunnel through the rock below the Valletta bastions, open at both ends with an air space inside, surrounded by boulders and a scatter of wartime junk. Sheltered enough to dive when everywhere else is blown out.
Sultan Rock
Comino
The uncharted rock that tore the bottom out of a Victorian ironclad, now a shallow boulder garden off Comino's southeast corner. Rarely dived, mostly because the current through the channel has opinions.
Tac-Cawla Rocks
Gozo
A shallow rock and tunnel on the Mgarr side of Gozo, ten metres at most, pretty in the right light and barely written about. Good snorkelling territory as much as a dive.
Tent Peg Wreck
Malta
The flattened remains of an unnamed steel cargo steamer in Marsamxett Harbour, named for the thousands of tent pegs that are all that survives of its cargo. Silty, sheltered and only for people who enjoy poking about.
The Canyon
Comino
A little-visited stretch of Comino's north coast broken into small drop-offs and narrow tunnels, with the remains of an old Maltese fishing boat scattered among the rocks. Better after dark than in daylight.
Unknown Barge
Malta
A big unidentified barge sitting upright on sand at around 60 m off St Paul's Bay, close to the submarine HMS Stubborn. Flat and plain from outside, more interesting once you go in.
Unknown Schnellboot
Malta
An unidentified German fast attack boat lying at around 90 m off the east coast of Malta. A technical dive with very little published about it, which is most of the reason people want to see it.
Wolf Den
Malta
A cluster of small, tight caves roughly halfway between Għar Lapsi and Wied iż-Żurrieq. Shallow, dark, silty and too narrow for backmount, so this is a sidemount cave dive and nothing else.
Xgħajra Reef
Malta
A quiet, barely written up reef off the Xgħajra seafront where wave erosion has carved a sinkhole and a knot of short tunnels and low arches. Shallow, atmospheric and almost entirely free of other divers.
Xlendi Underwater Archaeological Park
Xlendi Bay, Gozo
Gozo's deep-water museum floor: a 67,000 square metre protected zone off Xlendi where a Phoenician trading ship went down around the seventh century BC, its amphorae and grinding stones still lying where they scattered at roughly 105 metres. Closed-circuit territory, visited only through licensed operators.