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Divers silhouetted in the blue entrance of the Elephant Cave — Crete

Crete · Greece · Wall

Likotinarea Wall

A vertical wall dropping to 40 m, 15 minutes out by boat

Area photo: nsyll · CC BY 2.0

A vertical wall about 15 minutes by boat from Georgioupoli, with a drop-off running to 40 m. The face on the left shoulder is the dive: crevices in the rock hold moray eels, octopus and crustaceans, and the depth you hold along it is yours to decide.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Likotinarea Wall: typical dive to 40 m (to 130 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit40 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 50 m (164 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

35.3930° N, 24.2608° EPublished position for this site.

The dive

The boat run out of Georgioupoli takes about 15 minutes and the drop is straight onto the wall. It falls to 40 m, so the first decision is what depth to hold: the face is the same dive shallow as it is deep, and the deeper you take it the shorter the tank lasts. Most of the interest is on the left shoulder, where the rock stands vertical.

Work along that face and read the crevices. Moray eels sit back in the holes, octopus wedge into the cracks and crustaceans line the ledges, so the pace is slow and the torch does most of the finding rather than your eyes. Come up the wall rather than away from it, because the shallower rock keeps producing right into the safety stop.

Marine life and season

  • Octopus & cuttlefish
  • Macro critters
Month-by-month season rating for Likotinarea Wall
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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 drop-off runs to 40 m with nothing to arrest a descent, so set a maximum depth before you get in and use a computer alarm to hold yourself to it.

Sources

  1. Likotinarea Wall — Scubago — Scubago

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