Chandelier Cave

A flooded limestone sea cave in Malakal Harbor, a few minutes by boat from Koror, where five chambers run back into the rock and four of them trap pockets of breathable air. Divers drop through the entrance at about 4 m, follow the divemaster through shallow submerged passages, and surface inside the chambers to stand among stalactites and stalagmites that took tens of thousands of years to grow, fingers of rock hanging from the ceiling to meet columns rising off the floor. Depth stays under 15 m and the water is still, but the chambers are dark and silt clouds easily, so a torch and slow, controlled buoyancy matter. Out at the entrance wall, cardinalfish and soldierfish gather in the shadows, banded coral shrimp work the cracks, and mandarinfish appear around dusk.