Stunning image of submerged Azure Window gives Dwejra top billing for scuba diving

Not all is lost... submerged in Gozo’s blue waters, the Azure Window is now accumulating marine life and offers scuba divers a new playground

The stunning photo of the Azure Window submerged. (C) Per Eide
The stunning photo of the Azure Window submerged. (C) Per Eide

Photos of the collapsed Azure Window in Gozo’s Dwejra have emerged on The Telegraph, attesting to what is now a prime dive site for scuba divers.

Images published in the UK newspaper show divers exploring the area where the limestone formation fell to the sea and has now manifested itself in massive chunks of rock, cracked, sharp-edged and strewn across the floor of the Mediterranean, with marine life already beginning to take over.

Nature claims Gozo’s iconic Azure Window, lost forever after total collapse

The Azure Window fell in March after stormy weather claimed its crumbling foundations. The arch, immortalised in several films as well as a Games of Thrones episode, was disintegrating because large pieces of rock had begun to fall from the underside of the arch. Its dangerous condition led to warning notices being placed along the cliffs to stop people walking over the top of the arch. In April 2012 a large piece of rock was dislocated and resulted in the window being made larger and more unstable, as well as a reduction in its nearly perfect oblong shape.

(C) Per Eide
(C) Per Eide

A spokesperson for the Maltese tourist board told The Telegraph that divers should only explore the site with a registered dive club in the area.

Perhaps one of the best documents so far on the new Dwejra underwater landscape is that of Joseph Caruana.

 

And here's a nostalgic image of that beautiful Dwejra arch...