Amorgos · Greece · Wall
Nikouria
A pocketed wall sloping to 40 m off Nikouria islet
Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nikouria is the deep wall off the islet of the same name, between Amorgos's two ports, and the northern counterpart to Agi Anna. The wall slopes rather than falls away, running down to 40 m, and visibility is good enough to see the sandy bottom from well above it. The interest is close range: the face is broken into pockets, and the pockets hold the life.
Where it is and how deep
36.8802° N, 25.8981° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The dive starts at the top of the wall and follows it down. It slopes rather than drops, so you can pick a depth and hold it against the rock instead of hanging in open water, and the good visibility means the sandy bottom is in sight from a long way above it. That makes the site easy to read and easy to navigate along, and the full slope reaches 40 m.
Work close to the face rather than out from it. The wall is broken into pockets, and that is where the marine life is concentrated: sponges, nudibranchs and smaller fish, wrasse, bream and cardinalfish, rather than anything passing in the blue. Turn shallow with plenty of gas and ascend along the upper wall, which gives a long slow way back up with the same close-range subjects to work through.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Good | Good | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Amorgos: Courses and testimonials cluster June to October, with October unpredictable. The meltemi unsettles late summer; winter winds and currents put some sites out of reach without closing the island.
Know before you go
- The slope runs to 40 m with nothing to mark the transition into deep water, so agree a maximum depth before you descend and check gas on the way down.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Nikouria wall?+
The wall slopes down to 40 metres. No shallow figure is published for the top of it, so plan the dive from the depth you intend to work at rather than from a fixed profile.
Sources
- Nikouria — Scubago / Amorgos Diving Center
Photo credits
- The islet of Nikouria seen across the strait from the Amorgos coast by Zde, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Amorgos
Flat reef to 18 m, then a wall to about 40 m
Wreck
A wartime debris trail from 13 m past recreational depth
A cavern at around 25 m on the islet's northern wall
Wall
Bauxite loading gear on an 18 m plateau below the mines
Cave & cavern
A narrow passage under fallen rock, entered at about 18 m
Similar dives elsewhere
A drop-off with an overhang shaped like an amphitheatre
Named for its nudibranchs, flabellinas especially
An overhanging sponge wall down to a 35 m wooden wreck at 42 m
Tunnels, canyons and walls down to a plateau facing open water