Fish of the Mediterranean.
Photo by Paul Oakes.

In the book The dive sites of Malta, Comino and Gozo, Lawson and Lesley Wood write: "The offer of unlimited diving, clear deep water and an unrivalled abundance of marine life keeps divers coming back year after year." Malta's geographical position, splat in the center of the Mediterranean, is partly the reason why it offers the best diving in the Mediterranean. The range of marine species in the Mediterranean is roughly divided into four regions, north and south, east and west, but Malta straddles the point where the four regions meet, home to species from all four regions. Fifty thousand foreign divers visit Malta annually; the number is growing, a trend that has spurred diving centres to scuttle more artificial reefs to create more dive sites.

Abundance of marine life aside, underwater visibility is as good as it gets - twenty metres in spring and autumn during the plankton build-up, up to forty-five metres between November and March. Sea-scapes are excellent, the boulder meadows, gulleys, chimneys, ledges, cliff drops, gorges, caves, domes; all formed as the water erodes the veins and layers of soft limestone, called globigerina limestone. Mild weather allows all-year-round diving (water temperatures rise to 27 degrees C in summer, down to 15C in winter).

The thirty-three diving schools are professional. Most are affiliated with the major international schools of instruction (PADI, CMAS, BSAC, and the lesser known FUAM and APDS). Diving schools offer all the standard courses plus more specialised courses such as night diving and cave diving. The five-day Open Water Course costs about £200, the three-day Advanced Open Water Course costs about $250 (on completion of the latter you qualify for the 'C' Card, your worldwide diving passport). For the uninitiated, diving schools offer one-off 'taster dives' for $40.

Malta - a cluster of three islands whose combined land area is about one-half the size of London - has about seventy-five charted dive sites, plus the unofficial in-betweens. As a general rule the dive sites in Gozo, Malta's second largest sister island, are less polluted, less crowded, with more dramatic scenery.

Here are five of the best areas for diving:

Overall Best Dive Sites: Off Dwejra, Gozo's northernmost tip, six individual sites clustered within 1km2; all are about 1km offshore. These dives sites are situated on the headlands dissected by huge vertical faults and peppered by ancient fossils, along a series of canyons and caverns. Some species common off Dwejra are rare in the Mediterranean - the slipper lobster, spiny lobster, common lobster, the shoals of marine goldfish, the eagle ray, large ray, electric or torpedo ray, and the various species of delicate cnidarians, coral-like formations, ranging from bright sea fans to sheets of golden colour; and the fragile gorgonian sea fans attached to rocks in deeper water, the yellow sea fan and red sea fan, the soft coral called dead men's fingers.

The individual dives: the Azure Window, Blue Hole, Coral Cave, Crocodile Rock, Inland Sea, and Fungus Rock. The Azure Window's water azure blue, sixty metres deep; boulders string the sea bed, their surfaces splotched with spiny starfish, the sea guarded by the dusky grouper. The Blue Hole is a converted dome, and its bottom leads into a huge cave covered in golden cup corals. The Coral Cave is home to the rare marine goldfish, hermit crabs, and fireworms. Crocodile Rock is carved into a natural amphitheatre where groupers are common. At the Inland Sea you thread through a narrow canyon that then drops sharply into the open sea - the view is the equivalent of standing atop a bluff and peering over an endless plateau below. The Fungus Rock rises like spindle from the sea bottom, and on its faces the bleeding-red sea potatoes take root.

Best Dive Sites in Malta: Three offshore dives off the north west coast - Devil's Reef, M'tahleb, Migrah Ferha. Devil's Reef is a reef that slopes gently to about fifty metres before plunging into very deep water; a cave of stalactites bores through its face, foraging grounds for predatory fish such as barracuda, dentex, amberjack and crevalle jacks. M'tahleb is vertical cliff, its face poked by caves and terraced by ledges, the sea clouded by wrasse, parrotfish, chromis and smelt, while hermit crabs and shrimps parade the grounds warily. Another vertical cliff 100 meters deep makes Migrah Ferha a dramatic dive, the wall broken by a cavern and an archway, home to eagle rays, tuna and barracuda.

Best Dive Sites in Comino: Lighthouse Reef, another offshore dive. A rocky shelf reveals the trapdoor-like entrance of a chimney, through which you float down, then exit at sixteen meters; rocky boulders large as cottages have created swim-throughs and arches and caves, home to purple heart urchins, white-tufted worms, and fireworms.

Best Wreck Dive: The Blenheim Bomber borrows the name of this fat World War II bomber plane; it's a 'must see'. The plane's fore section has cracked off but the rest of the aeroplane, including the wings, is intact - still lying where it fell in World War II.

Best Night Dives: Marfa Point in Malta, Mgarr Ix-Xini in Gozo. In both sites you encounter species that are shy during daylight and the torch's light picks out colours that are overlooked in daylight; species include the peacock worm, shrimps, blennies, white-spotted octopus.

Requirements for Diving:

To dive you need a permit that costs $5, and you require a 'C' Card, medical certificate, and two passport photos. Application forms can be obtained from the diving schools, who arrange a medical test, and your permit comes through in two days. You can rent the equipment from any diving school and go on unaccompanied dives, or join group dives with diving schools.

For further information see the Malta Tourism Authority web site or the web site of the Professional Diving Schools Association.

For more detailed information about the dive sites see Lawson and Leslie Wood's diving guide called The Dive Sites of Malta, Comino and Gozo (published in the UK in 1999 by New Holland Publishers Ltd).

Editor's Note: Borg is freelance travel writer. He has written extensively about Malta, including the Rough Guide to Malta & Gozo.