Gozo

Wied ir-Raheb

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.

Advanced🕳️ Cave25 to 70 mBoat divePopularity: lowAlso called Hermit's Valley, House Cave, Ta' Wiereb, Wied ir-Raħeb

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:47 AM

Waves: 0.4 m; from ESE
Wind: n/a
Swell: 0.3 m; 5 s period
Sea temp: 28 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️75 0.6 m
0 N

Sat🌤️85 0.4 m
0 N

Sun🌤️91 0.3 m
0 N

Mon🌤️98 0.2 m
0 N

Tue🌤️82 0.5 m
0 N

Wed🌤️60 0.8 m
0 N

Thu🌤️62 0.8 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), SW (225°), N (0°). This is the exposed western flank of Gozo and it faces straight into the prevailing north-westerly. Anything with west in it puts swell on the cliff and closes the caves, and the boats will usually call it off well before the surface looks bad from land. Wait for a settled easterly or a flat spell. Best season: June to early October, on a settled easterly; visibility is typically best in late summer and autumn.

The dive

Wied ir-Raheb is a dry gorge that starts a long way inland and dies in the cliff face about twenty-five metres above the water. Nobody dives the valley: you dive the wall underneath it, and you do it from a boat, usually as a drift with the skipper shadowing your bubbles.

The run takes in three caves. The first and the third are both open to the sky, one sitting around fifteen metres and the other nearer twenty-five, and their walls and floors are upholstered in sponges and calcified coral in colours that do not belong in the Mediterranean. Good torch, better buoyancy, and they repay slow swimming.

The middle one is the reason people come. Local fishermen call it Ta' Wiereb; divers call it the House Cave, because the way in is a squared-off gap in the cliff that genuinely reads as a doorway, with a round window above it that serves as the exit. At the back a wide, very dark chimney lifts you to a small sealed air pocket at water level. It is a spectacular piece of rock architecture and it is also a proper overhead environment, so the House Cave is not a place to improvise.

Between the caves the ground is a chaos of house-sized boulders that slid off the cliff at some point in the last few thousand years. Oddly for terrain like that the fish life is only moderate rather than dense, so come for the geology and treat the grouper as a bonus. Off the boulders the wall keeps falling well past recreational depths, which is why this site turns up on technical schedules too.

The House Cave doorway and its round window exit, one of the strangest entrances in Malta
A wide black chimney leading up to a sealed air pocket
Two more caves open to the sky, both crusted in sponge and orange coral
Drifting over a field of cliff-fall boulders on a sheer west-facing wall
Almost no other divers, because everything depends on the boat

Typical plan

Boat drop at the northern end of the run, straight down to fifteen or sixteen, then drift south along the cliff foot taking the first cave, the House Cave and the third cave in order. Plan the House Cave as a short, single-file, torch-in-hand penetration with a clear turn point at the chimney, and keep the group small. Average around twenty to twenty-five metres with a hard floor agreed in the briefing, since the wall keeps going. Forty to forty-five minutes on a twelve, nitrox 32 recommended, DSMB up before you surface for the pick-up.

What the bottom looks like

1First cave, open to the surface15 m deep · 20 m out
2Collapsed boulder field under the gorge16 m deep · 70 m out
3House Cave (Ta' Wiereb) doorway entrance16 m deep · 150 m out
4Dark chimney to the enclosed air pocket12 m deep · 155 m out
5Round window exit above the doorway14 m deep · 160 m out
6Third cave, open to the surface25 m deep · 250 m out
7Wall falling away past technical depths40 m deep · 300 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from the boat drop. Depths are approximate.

Tumbled coralline limestone blocks and rubble against the cliff foot, with patches of coarse sand between the boulders and bare deep wall further out.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Boat only, with no realistic shore alternative: the cliff above the site is a sheer drop and there is no ladder, no ramp and no beach along this coast. Dive centres run it from Xlendi and Marsalforn, and some combine it with Wied il-Mielah or the Dwejra sites in a single boat day. Because it is usually swum as a drift, agree a clear pick-up plan and carry a DSMB. Nothing on land here: no parking near the water, no toilets, no cafe, so sort all of that out before you leave the harbour.

The House Cave is a true overhead environment with a dark chimney and a sealed air pocket
Sediment and silt inside the caves, easily kicked up by a group
No shore exit for the whole stretch of coast
Run as a drift, so separation from the boat is the main risk; carry a DSMB
Wall falls away far beyond recreational limits, so depth discipline matters
Surge against the cliff and inside the cave mouths with any westerly swell
Sharp boulders and urchins near the cliff foot

A bit of history

The name refers to a monk or hermit, and the gorge is one of several dry valleys that cut the western tableland of Gozo before dropping off the Upper Coralline cliffs. The cave shapes here come from the same process that carved Dwejra and Wied il-Mielah: softer beds getting worked out by the sea, roofs collapsing, and blocks tumbling into the water to make the boulder field divers now swim over. The House Cave's doorway and window are natural, however deliberate they look.

Divers say

No reviews yet. First one gets bragging rights.

Further reading: Atlantis Gozo: Wied ir-Raheb House Cave · Malta Dives: Wied ir-Raheb · Visit Gozo: Wied ir-Raheb · DiveBoat.mt: Wied ir-Raheb