
Rhodes · Greece · Reef
Anchor Forest
A seabed installation of lost boat anchors, 18 m maximum
Area photo: PawełMM · CC BY-SA 4.0
Anchor Forest is a reef dive on the north-east coast of Rhodes with an unusual centrepiece: a collection of lost boat anchors, dumped on the seabed by captains who did not know how to anchor, that H2O Diving Center describes as a nice installation. Maximum depth is 18 m and the minimum level is Open Water Diver, which makes it one of the island's easy dives.
Where it is and how deep
36.3231° N, 28.2118° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The dive has a destination, and the guide takes you to it. You descend over the reef and follow it to the anchor forest, a cluster of anchors dumped in the sea by boats that, as H2O Diving Center puts it, had captains who did not know how to anchor; the result is the installation you are looking at. The dive's maximum depth is 18 m, so the whole route stays inside Open Water limits.
Anchors mean lines, and lines mean entanglement, so the rule is to look and keep your distance rather than swim between them. After the forest the rest of the dive is the reef, worked back towards the entry point at a depth that suits an Open Water diver, the operator's stated minimum for the site. It is a straightforward dive with one memorable feature, and it fits into a day of dives on this stretch of coast.
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 | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Rhodes: May to October is the season, peaking July to September; centres still run in October, charter flights stop after October, and very little is dived from November to March.
Know before you go
- Lost anchors come with lost lines; keep clear of the anchors and any rope around them rather than swimming through the cluster.
Sources
- Anchor Forest — Scubago / H2O Diving Center
More dive sites in Rhodes
A marine cave to 19 m opening onto a reef that drops past 30 m
Reef
A statue of Eros on a reef of cavities and a steep drop-off
Wall
An abandoned fishing net at the foot of a wall from 18 m to 3 m
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The entry-level reef dive: 18 m and a surprise ending
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Cavern formations in a shallow bay, 10 to 22 m
Flat reef, drop-off and wall in one 18 m dive
A stiff wall and a deeper reef cut with cavities, arranged to 24 or 30 m
A stiff wall from 6 m to 30 m with an Open Water minimum
Similar dives elsewhere
Try-dive shallows at 3-5 m, groupers on the way to 16 m
One of the area's dive highlights, and an ideal night dive
White gorgonians, nudibranchs and lobsters in the faults at 18 to 20 m
Blocks, caves and furrows in the south face that took ships' anchors




