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Għar Lapsi · Malta

Finger Reef

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.

Open Water🕳️ Cave🪸 Reef🧱 Wall7 to 20 mShore access: easyPopularity: highAlso called Finger Reef and Crib, Għar Lapsi Finger Reef
Plan this dive

Sea conditions

75

Good right now

Some chop (0.5 m ESE)

Forecast for the site, updated 01:46 AM

Waves
0.5 m
from ESE
Wind
n/a
Swell
0.5 m
5 s period
Sea temp
29 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️70 0.5 m
0 N
Sat🌤️79 0.4 m
0 N
Sun🌤️79 0.4 m
0 N
Mon🌤️94 0.2 m
0 N
Tue🌤️85 0.4 m
0 N
Wed🌤️100 0.8 m
0 N
Thu🌤️82 0.8 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: SE (135°), S (180°), SW (225°), W (270°). Wants a northerly or northeasterly wind, when the cliffs behind flatten the water completely. Anything from the south or southwest and the cove becomes unworkable. Visibility here is routinely 15 to 30 m and can be much better in late summer. Do not let the current surprise you: check it at the reef edge before you commit to the outward leg. Best season: May to October for warm, clear water and settled south coast conditions, assuming the site is open following the storm works..

The dive

Finger Reef earns its name from the shape: a slender spur of rock reaching out from the shore with sand on either side, so you can follow it out and back without ever needing a compass. It is the most dived of the Għar Lapsi reefs and deservedly so, because it packs a lot of different things into twenty metres of water.

The small wall along one flank is the pretty bit, thick with false coral and sponges and busy with small brightly coloured fish that look far better once a torch puts real colour back into them. Further out the reef broadens into a plateau with an arch to swim through, and there is a cave with a hole in its roof that you can rise out of, which is one of those small moments that makes new divers grin for the rest of the day. Under an overhang on the outer reef sits the Crib, the nativity figures that give the site its other name on the Malta Tourism Authority report.

Because the maximum is around 20 m and most of the route sits between 7 and 16 m, this works for freshly certified divers as well as for people who just want a long, low-stress potter. Combine it with the cave system on the way in or out and you have one of the better shore dives on this side of Malta.

  • A cave you exit upward through a hole in the roof
  • Small wall glowing with false coral once you put a torch on it
  • Swim-through arch on the outer plateau
  • The Crib nativity scene under an overhang
  • Easy to link with the Għar Lapsi cave system in one dive

Typical plan

In from the cove, out along the finger with the reef on one shoulder, dropping gradually to 16 or 18 m at the outer end. Take the cave and its roof exit, then the arch, and look in on the Crib if your certification and gas allow the extra couple of metres. Turn on thirds or half gas and return along the opposite flank, finishing shallow, or duck back into the cave system for the last fifteen minutes. Forty-five to sixty minutes on a single cylinder. Torch, DSMB and a look at the current before you head out.

What the bottom looks like

071520m🤿1234567500 m from entry
  1. 1Start of the reef spur out of the cove5 m deep · 30 m out
  2. 2Small wall covered in false coral and sponges11 m deep · 140 m out
  3. 3Sand channels flanking the finger14 m deep · 230 m out
  4. 4Cave with a hole in the roof to exit through17 m deep · 310 m out
  5. 5Plateau swim-through arch18 m deep · 380 m out
  6. 6The Crib, nativity figures under an overhang20 m deep · 430 m out
  7. 7Outer edge of the reef20 m deep · 480 m out
Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Cove entry at Għar Lapsi, then out and west along the reef. Depths are approximate.

A narrow coralline limestone spur with a low wall on one flank, flanked by sand channels and patches of weed, topping out around 20 m at the outer end.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

From the Għar Lapsi cove: park above, walk down the steep hill and steps with your kit, enter in the sheltered shallows and swim out and west along the reef. Parking is about a hundred metres from the water as the crow flies but a good deal further in effort. Cafe, toilets and a police station are traditionally on site. Confirm current access before travelling, as shoreline structures were being rebuilt through 2026 after storm damage.

  • Current on this coast can run strongly, sometimes east to west, and it can arrive without warning
  • Steep steps and a hard carry back up at the end of the dive
  • Surge in the cave and under the overhangs when there is swell
  • Overhead environment at the roof-hole exit, needing calm and good buoyancy
  • Sea urchins and sharp rock in the shallows
  • Swimmers and snorkellers in the cove in summer
  • Site access disrupted by 2026 storm rebuilding works

A bit of history

Part of the Għar Lapsi complex on the Lower Coralline Limestone of Malta's south coast. Its signature feature, the Crib, is a nativity scene placed under an overhang on the outer reef and is listed alongside Finger Reef and Middle Reef in the Malta Tourism Authority's dive site report for the area. The wider site suffered major damage in Storm Harry in January 2026, with rebuilding works and restricted access following.

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Further reading: Divers Guide: Ghar Lapsi Finger Reef and Crib · Visit Malta: Finger Reef and Crib, Għar Lapsi · New Dimension Scuba: Ghar Lapsi, finger reef and crib · Malta Tourism Authority Dive Site Report 9: Finger Reef, Crib and Middle Reef