In the Pacific Ocean, under the tiny island of Ngarol, which is not even visible on a regular map, there is a stunning underwater cave, known to divers all over the world. We invite you to a virtual diving trip with a view of 360º to the Cave of the Candelabra
The Pacific nation of Palau is an archipelago of 328 islands. The largest of them occupies 374,1 km², which is more than 70% of the entire country. The rest of the land may be quite tiny, but one of them is known to divers all over the world: under the island of Ngarol, which is not even visible on a regular map, there is a stunning underwater cave called the Chandelier.
It appeared many centuries ago: rainwater constantly seeped through the limestone that makes up the surface of the island, and the result of erosion were cavities filled with air. After the last ice age, the water level rose and this is how the cave system, consisting of five chambers, or halls, appeared. Four are filled with water, and the last, the smallest, is land.
We offer a virtual diving trip with a view of 360º in this unusual cave.
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The locals call the cave "Iiel Temekai", which can be translated as "Sea Bass Cave". Perhaps many fish lived here before, but now the main attraction is different. For divers, this place is called the Candelabra Cave. The calcined water created stalactites and other limestone formations. They took on a variety of forms, and if you apply imagination, the "clusters" can resemble lighting fixtures. "Chandelier" is the official term for this kind of deposits, but here these growths are so picturesque that they gave the name to the whole cave.
The entrance to this amazing underwater world is located at a depth of about 4,5 meters, and the diver immediately plunges into a parallel reality. Stalactites cover the walls not only above the water, but also below its surface, and no "candelabra" is alike.
Having dived into the first hall, you can swim slowly to the very last one, rising above the water and viewing these wonders of nature from all sides. Even the transitions between the halls are full of fantastic figures!
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In each hall, between the surface of the water and the stalactites hanging from above, there is an air space – from half a meter to several meters. Depending on the time of high-low tide, the height of the air chamber can change by about 1-2 meters. Visiting this place in the morning and returning in the afternoon, you may simply not recognize it!
Some air chambers are quite small, so you can barely stick your head out of the water and look around, while others are as small as a small room. Such entertainment is popular among guides: swim up to a stalactite and lick a drop of fresh water from its tip that has seeped through the thickness of the earth from the surface with your tongue.
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A distinctive feature of this place is its easy accessibility: the cave is located 5-10 minutes by boat from the diving centers located on the island of Malakal near the tourist capital of the country, the city of Koror.
It is better to get into the cave at a time when there are no groups of divers: then you can enjoy the study of fantastic natural formations alone.
In the fourth – the last and smallest hall of the cave – there is a small inconspicuous hole in the wall, located about a meter above the water. This is a little-known passage to the fifth "land" hall. Those who wish to be there will first need to undress in the water, take off their balloons, fins, masks, take a flashlight with them and climb the wall, and then crawl through this narrow hole for several meters through the mud. And after that, another cave will open at the exit, but without water.
To better understand the structure of the Candelabra Cave, we will give its map below.
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In the fifth cave, the air is a little stale, it is rather difficult to breathe, but still possible. And as compensation for all the suffering, you will see a small beautiful hall with stalactites and stalagmites. The impression of the image of the discoverer is slightly spoiled only by the fact that all the walls are covered with inscriptions in the spirit of “Vasya was here” in different languages.
The process of removing the equipment and crawling through a narrow hole is time-consuming, especially considering that then all this must be done in reverse order, and there is not much space there. Therefore, the fifth hall can only be accessed by a small group, so it is better to take a private guide. Due to the complexity of the delivery of photographic equipment and in the conditions of limited time in the fifth hall, shooting was not carried out for this virtual tour.
And from a bird's eye view, the island looks like a beautiful green oasis in the middle of the endless ocean, and nothing says what kind of treasure lies under its surface.
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Now it's time to go virtual diving in Candelabra Cave with high-quality virtual panoramas AirPano.
Source: AirPano.com
