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.
CaveSea conditions
Stay dry right now
Sea is up (5.1 m WNW) · Fresh WNW wind (42 km/h) · Gusts to 63 km/h
Done for today. Tomorrow: not looking good. Best it gets is 12 at 17:00: Sea is up (1.9 m WNW)
Forecast for the site, updated 19:45 · Models disagree
Measured at Mġarr, Gozo (12.2 km away, 20:29): 36 km/h from WNW, gusts 41. The next hours lean on it.
- Waves
- 5.1 m
- from WNW, biggest 8.4
- Wind
- 42 km/h
- WNW, gusts 63
- Swell
- 0.3 m
- 12 s period
- Sea temp
- 22 °C
- air 19 °C
Hour by hour
Next 7 days
0 5.1 m57 W
0 4.8 m52 WNW
30 1.2 m18 W
83 0.4 m17 ESE
79 0.5 m17 E
69 0.5 m23 NE
73 0.5 m21 ESE
Sunrise 06:26, sunset 17:06
Waves: Copernicus Med-Waves 4 km + MFWAM 8 km + EWAM 5 km + ECMWF WAM 9 km. Wind: ICON-2I 2 km + ECMWF IFS 9 km + ICON-EU 7 km + UKMO 10 km + ARPEGE 11 km. Read a few km out on the side the site is open to, then blended.
Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), N (0°), NE (45°). Faces the open sea on the north-west corner of Gozo, so it needs the majjistral to be asleep. Anything from west through north makes the arch unworkable and often cancels the boat before it leaves. Best in light easterly or dead calm, when visibility here is often the best on the island. Best season: Late May to October, with September and early October usually giving the warmest water and the calmest north-west.
The dive
Everyone who mourned the Azure Window should be told about this place. Wied il-Mielah is the valley that runs out to Gozo's north-western cliffs, and where it meets the sea the rock has been chewed into a broad arch. Above water it is a walk and a photograph. Below water it is one of the prettiest little cave circuits on the island, and because there is no way in from the rocks it stays quiet even in August.
The standard loop starts under the arch itself. Drop down the seaward foot, turn in towards the valley and you slip into a roomy cavern with its entrance at about sixteen metres and a pocket of trapped air up at the back. Come out and head west and the ground rises again into a reef ridge that runs perhaps thirty metres, topping out near twelve. In the gutter between the ridge and the cliff wall the sand sits closer to eighteen, and there is a low swim-through under the rock that is much easier than it looks.
Carry on west and you reach the crack. It is a cave that never closed over, so daylight pours down the whole length of it and the walls glow. Photographers tend to lose their gas plan here. Past it the wall settles at eighteen to twenty and the bottom tilts away into scattered, sponge-crusted boulders.
If you want the big fish, face the open sea and swim straight out from the arch until the bottom stops meaning anything. Somewhere around thirty to thirty-five metres a column of barracuda often hangs in the current, and amberjack come through on the same line. Eastwards the wall simply keeps going past fifty, which is a different dive and a different plan.
- Diving under a natural sea arch that survived the fate of the Azure Window
- A big cavern with a genuine air pocket at sixteen metres
- The open crack cave, lit from above and shamelessly photogenic
- Barracuda column hanging in the blue straight out from the arch
- Quiet by default, because nobody can walk in
Typical plan
Boat drop at the arch, straight down the seaward foot to about sixteen and into the cavern, then out and west along the reef ridge at twelve, through the swim-through at eighteen, and on to the crack cave at twenty. If gas and the group allow, push out into the blue to thirty or thirty-five for the barracuda, then turn and work the boulders back up to the reef top for the last ten minutes. Forty-five to fifty minutes on a single twelve on air is comfortable; nitrox 32 is nicer if you plan the blue excursion. Keep the deep leg early and finish shallow under the arch.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Seaward foot of the Wied il-Mielah arch8 m deep · under the boat
- 2Large cavern with air pocket under the window16 m deep · 15 m from the boat
- 3Thirty-metre reef ridge west of the arch12 m deep · 40 m from the boat
- 4Low swim-through between ridge and wall18 m deep · 70 m from the boat
- 5Open crack cave lit from the surface20 m deep · 95 m from the boat
- 6Sponge-covered boulder slope22 m deep · 135 m from the boat
- 7Edge into the blue where barracuda shoal35 m deep · 235 m from the boat
Broken coralline limestone and boulder fields close in, giving way to pale sand and rubble as the slope runs out into the blue.
Who you might meet
Almost always
Often
Sometimes
Lucky day
Marked ones can hurt you. What they do and what to do about it is under Getting in and staying safe.
Getting in and staying safe
Boat only for diving. Most operators run out from Marsalforn or Xlendi and the ride is long enough to be part of the day, so bring something warm for the trip back. There is no shore exit anywhere along this stretch of cliff, so the boat is your only ladder and the skipper stays on station. Land visitors can drive to the end of the Gharb road at Wied il-Mielah and walk down the concrete path to the viewing area above the arch, but that is sightseeing, not a dive entry: there is no safe way to get kitted divers into the water there.
- No shore exit anywhere along this coast, so a lost boat means a long problem
- Surge pushes through the arch and the caves when there is any northerly swell running
- Air pocket at the back of the cavern is tempting and the air in it is not fresh
- Silt and fine sediment inside the cavern if a group stirs it up
- The wall east of the arch drops well past fifty, so depth creep is real
- Small boat traffic and tourist RIBs in summer
- Exposed cliff site with no shelter and no facilities
Marine life to respect
Mediterranean moray · Morina Can hurt you
Bites hard if a hand goes into its hole. Keep hands out of cracks and never feed one.
Red scorpionfish · Ċippullazza Can hurt you
Venomous spines, and it sits still on the rock. Look before you kneel or hold on; hot water if stung.
A bit of history
The window is the same Upper Coralline limestone story that produced Dwejra's Azure Window: sea drills a cave into the cliff, the roof thins, the back of it opens out and for a few thousand years you get an arch. The Azure Window lost that bet in a storm in March 2017, which is exactly why Wied il-Mielah has become the island's poster arch. The valley name translates roughly as the salty valley, and its Roman-era water channel and the footbridge over the gorge are part of the walk in.
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Further reading: Malta Dives: Wied il-Mielah · Atlantis Gozo: Wied il-Mielah · Visit Gozo: Wied il-Mielah diving · DiveBoat.mt: Wied il-Mielah