Amorgos · Greece · Wall
Old Bauxite Mine
Bauxite loading gear on an 18 m plateau below the mines
Area photo: Kondephy · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Old Bauxite Mine lies under the island's disused mine workings on the east coast, where a steep drop-off ends on a plateau at 18 metres. On that plateau are parts of the equipment once used to load mined bauxite onto cargo ships. It is Amorgos's industrial dive: relics rather than a wreck, on a shelf shallow enough to spend a whole dive on.
Where it is and how deep
36.8957° N, 26.0217° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The dive is under the old bauxite mines on the east side of Amorgos. You go in over a steep drop-off and level out on a plateau at 18 metres, and that shelf is where the dive happens. Scattered across it are parts of the equipment used to load the mined ore onto cargo ships, machinery left on the seabed rather than a wreck, and the reason the site is dived at all.
The plateau carries a broad spread of marine life for one dive: scorpionfish, John Dory, octopus, rainbow wrasse and triggerfish are all recorded here by the centre that dives the site. Working slowly along the shelf gets you both halves of it, the machinery and the animals that have settled on and around it, without ever leaving 18 metres.
Background
Bauxite was one of the industrial resources of the Cyclades, found in the limestone layers of the islands' substrata and worked chiefly on Amorgos, Naxos, Milos, Kimolos and Serifos; the Amorgos deposits were already being exploited in 1940. The dive sits below those workings on the east coast, and the loading equipment on the plateau is what the trade left in the water once the ore stopped moving onto ships.
Marine life and season
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| 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.
Questions divers ask
What is there to see at the Old Bauxite Mine?+
Parts of the equipment used to load mined bauxite onto cargo ships, lying on a plateau at 18 metres, along with scorpionfish, John Dory, octopus, rainbow wrasse and triggerfish.
Sources
- Old Bauxite Mine — Scubago / Amorgos Diving Center
- History of the Cyclades — Wikipedia
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 pocketed wall sloping to 40 m off Nikouria islet
A cavern at around 25 m on the islet's northern wall
Cave & cavern
A narrow passage under fallen rock, entered at about 18 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Overhangs and rock walls to 20 m, good for finding octopus
Rocky walls, sand and small caves in 5 to 20 m of calm water
A protected wall shallow enough for a first dive
A reserve wall to 20 m with a small arch full of life