Palau · Palau · Cave & cavern
Chandelier Cave
Surfacing inside air-filled limestone chambers under Malakal Island
Area photo: 陳德範（Chen, De-Fan） · CC BY 4.0
Chandelier Cave is a freshwater-filled cavern system on Malakal Island, with chambers where divers can surface in air inside the rock. It is shallow and easy in the water, but it is a dark overhead environment rather than a reef dive.
Where it is and how deep
7.3407° N, 134.4507° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The entrance sits about 4 m (12 ft) below the surface. Divers swim in through the opening and come up inside the first of four air-filled chambers; the five limestone caves of the system lie at a depth of about 11 m (36 ft).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows Palau: Boats run every month; November to April has the best conditions, and June to December is typhoon season.
Know before you go
- A dark overhead environment; divers who are claustrophobic or uneasy diving in darkness should skip it.
Photos from Chandelier Cave
Lakshmi Sawitri · CC BY 2.0
Dive videos
Chandelier Cave, Palau, Cave Dive · Andreas Becker (German Sausage) on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Is Chandelier Cave a good dive for someone who dislikes enclosed spaces?+
No. It is an overhead cave system with an entrance about 4 m below the surface, and divers who are claustrophobic or uneasy in darkness should avoid it.
Sources
- Diving in Palau — Dive The World
- Chandelier Cave — Fish 'n Fins Palau
- Scuba diving in Palau — Wild Hearted
- Best dive sites in Palau — PADI
- OpenStreetMap geocoding — OpenStreetMap
Photo credits
- Orange-brown cave rock with hanging formations above dark still water inside a chamber. by Lakshmi Sawitri, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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