A submerged limestone chamber in the cliff at Kalathas Bay, on the Akrotiri peninsula near Chania. The opening starts at about 14 m and the floor drops to roughly 21 m, and enough light comes through the mouth to throw beams across the interior. The dripstone formations inside are intact: this was a dry cave before the sea rose over it.
Also known as Cathedral Cave.
Where it is and how deep
35.5544° N, 24.0871° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The entrance opens in the cliff at about 14 m and is wide enough that sunlight floods in behind you as you go, which is what gives the site its name and its light beams. Inside, the floor drops away to roughly 21 m. Visibility is typically around 20 m, so the chamber reads as a room rather than as one torch beam's worth of rock at a time.
The formations are the reason to come: stalactites and stalagmites still intact, built when this was a dry cave in air. Fresh water works into the chamber and mixes with the salt in haloclines you can both see and feel. The water goes blurred and oily-looking where the two meet, and the temperature steps about a degree as you pass through them.
Background
The chamber was dry ground once. Stalactites and stalagmites form only in air, and the ones hanging inside this cave were built long before any water reached them; a later rise in sea level drowned the cave and left the dripstone intact. Those formations are what the dive is built around, rather than the marine life on the rock outside.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Crete: April to November is the season, warmest from July to September; the summer meltemi can blow out the exposed north-coast sites for a day or two at a time.
Know before you go
- The cliff entrance is shallow and takes the surge, and the Meltemi from the north-northwest puts chop on the surface; the entry is the part that closes the site.
- Haloclines blur the water where fresh and salt meet, so hold your line and your buddy through them rather than trusting what you can see.
Dive videos
Cathedral Cavern - Chania, Crete · Jerrod Jenkins on YouTube
360 Video - Cathedral Cavern - Crete - Hyperlapse 2X - 4K · WaterTrek 360 on YouTube
Sources
- The Cathedral (Cathedral Cave) Dive Report — Diveline
- Cathedral Cave: An Underwater Sanctuary — Scuba World Chania
- Best Dive Sites in Crete, Greece: A Diver's Guide — Diveline
- Kalathas, Akrotiri, Chania — OpenStreetMap
In The Logbook
- What are thermoclines and haloclines?Ocean science · 8 min read
- What is surge in diving, and how deep it goesOcean science · 8 min read
- Why is the sea blue? Water filters out redOcean science · 7 min read
- Cavern and cenote diving without cave trainingCaves & caverns · 8 min read
More dive sites in Crete
Reef
A 400-year-old anchor at 32 m, with more scattered around it
Wreck
A sugar carrier lost in 1985, lying in 12-16 m
Cave & cavern
A fixed rope up a siphon into an air pocket inside the cliff
Fossil dwarf-elephant bones in a chamber that still holds air
Seagrass, sand and rock in 7 m, straight off the beach
Reef
Cool, fresh-fed water over rocky patches to 15 m
Wall
A vertical wall dropping to 40 m, 15 minutes out by boat
Reef
A tunnel entered at 14 m that lets you out at 8 m
Similar dives elsewhere
The Shrimp Hole cavern at 24 m and a cave that holds 10 divers
A 50 m training cavern at 17 m, 15 minutes from Moraira port
Shafts of light turning the cave chambers an intense blue
An air dome at the end of the first cave