Port Vila & Efate · Vanuatu · Cave & cavern · Reef
The Cathedral
A cavern passage that ends in a chamber open to the surface
Photo: Frédéric Ducarme · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Cathedral is a tall, narrow cavern cut into the reef wall at Pango Point, on the south-western tip of Mele Bay facing the open ocean. Divers swim in through a wide entrance and follow the passage back to a chamber that, on calm days, opens to the surface.
Also known as Cathedral.
Where it is and how deep
17.7805° S, 168.2574° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The cavern opens straight off the surrounding reef. Its entrance is tall and wide, with a sandy bottom at about 22 m. From there the dive follows the thin passage back as the walls draw in towards the 'pulpit' at the apex, and beyond it the cavern opens into a large chamber. On calm days divers can surface inside at the end before swimming back down and out to the reef.
The walls of the cavern are carved with small ledges and lined with sponges and hydrocorals. Naia pipefish, possum wrasse, nudibranchs, shrimps, crabs and pygmy angelfish turn up inside, and hard corals decorate the reef wall outside the entrance.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Nudibranchs
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Port Vila & Efate: Diving runs all year; July to September is the dry peak, and November to April brings cyclones, with some closures from mid-January to mid-March.
Know before you go
- Surfacing in the chamber at the end of the passage is only possible on calm days.
Dive videos
Vanuatu Diving - Port Vila, The Cathedral, My New Fish Friend · Paul Martyniak on YouTube
Sources
- Dive Sites — Big Blue Scuba Vanuatu
- Guide to diving Vanuatu — Vanuatu Tourism Office
- The Cathedral — SSI
- Diving Port Vila, Vanuatu: Resilience and Reef Recovery Post-2024 Earthquake — Divernet
Photo credits
- A chambered nautilus with a cream shell banded in red-brown stripes, its tentacles extended over a coral and sponge-covered reef. by Frédéric Ducarme, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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