Chandelier Cave

Chandelier is a flooded cave system beneath a Rock Island where divers surface, one chamber at a time, into air pockets hung with stalactites, evidence the cave formed dry, when ice-age seas sat far lower. Guides lead through four chambers, masks off if you like in the last, headlamps playing over formations that drip just above the waterline. The dive is shallow and short, but it is an honest overhead environment: silt lifts easily and the exit is a doorway, not a surface. Outside, the rubble slope by the entrance hides mandarinfish; many divers spend longer there than in the cave.

اللحظة التي جئت من أجلها: Surfacing among stalactites; torchlight in the final chamber; mandarinfish hunting in the entrance rubble at dusk.

التضاريس: Limestone cave with silt floor and a series of air-filled chambers

نقطة الدخول: Minutes from Koror's marinas; entry through a dark doorway at the base of a Rock Island.

المخاطر: Overhead environment with fine silt; surface only where the guide surfaces; carry a light and a backup.

الحفاظ على البيئة البحرية: Do not touch the formations: skin oils and knocks end their growth permanently.