Malta, Gozo and Comino pack more than 120 dive sites — purpose-scuttled wrecks, limestone caverns, arches and walls — into a compact central-Mediterranean archipelago where most signature dives are shore entries and diving runs year-round in water from 14–16°C in late winter to about 27°C in late summer.
Destination info
Conditions, highlights, and the resident marine life.
Conditions
Water and air temperature across the year.
WaterAirDryShoulderWet
Description
Malta, Gozo and Comino form a compact limestone archipelago in the central Mediterranean whose diving is built on topography and history rather than coral: sheer walls, chimneys, caverns and natural arches in clear water, plus one of Europe's densest collections of diveable wrecks. Since the early 1990s the islands have deliberately scuttled at least eight vessels as artificial reefs — the tugboat Rozi (1992), the 110 m tanker Um El Faroud (1998), the ferries MV Xlendi and Imperial Eagle (1999), the Gozo ferries MV Karwela and MV Cominoland (2006), and the patrol boats P29 (2007) and P31 (2009) — most resting on sand at 20–42 m within a short swim of shore entry points. A separate tier of historic wrecks lying at roughly 55–115 m is protected as underwater cultural heritage and may only be dived through Heritage Malta-registered centres. Gozo's famous Azure Window arch collapsed in a storm in March 2017 and no longer exists above water; its remains are now dived as the boulder-strewn Azure Reef beside the Blue Hole at Dwejra. Diving is genuinely year-round, but this is a temperate sea: expect 22–27°C in summer, 14–16°C from January to March (drysuit territory), and marine life that is rewarding but Mediterranean in scale — dusky groupers, barracuda schools, octopus, morays and nudibranchs rather than tropical reef density. Many of the signature wrecks sit at 30 m or deeper, so the area rewards advanced and technical training even though excellent beginner sites exist.
Highlights
What makes this dive worth the trip.
Gozo's iconic Azure Window arch at Dwejra collapsed into the sea during a storm on the morning of 8 March 2017 — nothing of the arch remains above water. Its giant boulders now form the Azure Reef dive site, a swim-through boulder field running from just below the surface to beyond 40 m, usually dived together with the adjacent Blue Hole; the rocks can still shift, so the reef is literally evolving.
Malta has run one of Europe's most active wreck-scuttling programmes since the early 1990s: the tugboat Rozi (1992), the 110 m tanker Um El Faroud (1998), the ferries MV Xlendi and Imperial Eagle (1999), Gozo ferries MV Karwela and MV Cominoland (both 12 August 2006) and patrol boats P29 (2007) and P31 (2009) were all deliberately sunk for divers — most on sand between 20 and 42 m, several reachable from shore.
Since Act XIX of 2019, every cultural remain on Malta's seabed older than 50 years is protected underwater cultural heritage. Heritage Malta's Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit manages access to the deep historic wrecks — WWII casualties such as HMS Southwold, ORP Kujawiak and SS Polynesien lying at roughly 55–115 m — through an online booking system open only to registered dive centres, with strict no-touch and no-penetration rules; shallow classics like HMS Maori (16 m, St Elmo's Bay, Valletta) remain freely diveable from shore.
Marine life
20 species you’re likely to encounter on a dive here.
Dive sites
7 signature sites at this destination.
Blue Hole & Azure Reef (Dwejra)
Gozo's most famous dive: a circular sinkhole in the limestone about 10 m across, entered from a sheltered rock pool after a ~200 m walk over the shore. At around 9 m an archway opens through the rock wall into the open sea, where the route continues over the Azure Reef — the chaotic boulder field left when the Azure Window collapsed on 8 March 2017 — with swim-throughs from just below the surface to beyond 40 m. The hole's walls are coated in tubeworms and sponges, and a large cave sits opposite the archway. Boulders on the young reef can still shift; treat overhangs with respect.
5–40 madvancedShoreLightVisibility 20–40 m
Inland Sea Tunnel (Dwejra)
A shallow lagoon enclosed by cliffs, connected to the open sea by an 80 m natural tunnel through the rock — entered at about 3 m on the lagoon side and exiting at 26 m onto a sheer wall where the seabed drops to around 50 m. The tunnel's light funnel looking back toward the lagoon is one of the classic sights of Mediterranean diving. Outside, divers turn along the wall toward caves and cracks to the north or the Azure Reef and Blue Hole to the south. Tourist boats use the same tunnel, so depth discipline and an ear for engines are essential.
3–45 madvancedShoreLightVisibility 20–40 m
P29 Patrol Boat (Ċirkewwa)
A 52 m Kondor I-class minesweeper built at Peene-Werft in East Germany in 1969–70 as Boltenhagen, later a Maltese patrol boat, cleaned and scuttled on 14 August 2007 about 150 m off the Ċirkewwa entry point. She sits upright on sand at 34 m with the top of the mast around 12 m, making her a superb multilevel wreck; the bridge, bell and gun mounts are the photo landmarks, and prepared openings allow straightforward penetration for trained divers. Often combined with the nearby tugboat Rozi (scuttled 1992) on a second dive from the same entry.
12–34 madvancedShoreLightVisibility 15–30 m
MV Karwela (Xatt l-Aħmar, Gozo)
Probably the most dived wreck around Gozo: a 50 m steel passenger ferry built in West Germany in 1957 (as Frisia II), which ended her career carrying tourists for Captain Morgan Cruises before the Gozo Tourism Association scuttled her on 12 August 2006 alongside MV Cominoland off Xatt l-Aħmar. She sits upright on sand with the bow at about 39 m and the stern at 41 m; the centrepiece is the famous porthole-lit staircase between decks — one of the most photographed wreck interiors in the Mediterranean. Two more wrecks (Cominoland and Xlendi) lie within 60 m either side, making this a multi-wreck shore site for experienced deep divers.
30–41 madvancedShoreLightVisibility 20–35 m
Santa Marija Caves (Comino)
A boat-accessed system of interconnecting caverns, tunnels and swim-throughs on Comino's northern coast near Santa Marija Bay, mostly between 5 and 12 m. The resident saddled bream (kaħli in Maltese) are famously tame — generations of divers have fed them, and they swarm anyone entering the inlet. One chamber is open to the sky and safe to surface in; the rest of the labyrinth ultimately exits to open sea. Shallow, bright and easy, it is one of the best cavern introductions in the Mediterranean — but the surrounding water is busy with day-tripper and tour boats in summer.
3–12 mbeginnerDay boatNo currentVisibility 15–30 m
Ċirkewwa Arch
A natural underwater archway — the surviving span of a collapsed cavern — standing about 8 m tall with its top near 12 m, on the reef wall at Malta's north-western tip, sharing the same easy stride entry as the Rozi and P29 wrecks. The route out passes small caves and tunnels along an 18–20 m wall, and the reef continues past the arch toward deeper water. Frequented by groupers and, in summer, hunting pelagics; an ideal second dive after one of the Ċirkewwa wrecks and a genuinely beginner-friendly piece of dramatic topography.
12–25 mbeginnerShoreLightVisibility 15–30 m
Um El Faroud (Wied iż-Żurrieq)
Malta's flagship wreck: a 110 m, 16 m-beam Libyan oil tanker wrecked by a fatal gas explosion in Grand Harbour dry dock on 3 February 1995 (nine dockyard workers died — a memorial plaque on the bridge honours them) and scuttled as an artificial reef on 2 September 1998. She sits upright on sand about 150 m off the Wied iż-Żurrieq inlet, funnel at ~15 m and propeller at 36 m, and broke into two sections during winter storms in 2005–06. Engine room, bridge and corridors offer extensive penetration for trained wreck divers; the exterior alone fills a dive.
15–36 madvancedShoreLightVisibility 15–30 m
Where to dive & stay
Local dive centers, resorts, and hotels.
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