Dean's Blue Hole  

'The world's best freediving location.'

Imagine a salt-water swimming pool, with warm, calm waters that run 203m deep, populated by snapper, jacks and colourful tropical fish, patrolled by a school of silver-plated tarpon and visited by curious rays, turtles and tiny seahorses.  An underwater cathedral festooned with light and life.  This will be your classroom, your playground, your sanctuary...

At 203 meters (660 feet), Dean's is the deepest Blue Hole in the world, and the second largest underwater chamber. It is enclosed on 3 sides by a natural rock amphitheatre, and on the third side by a turquoise lagoon and powder white beach. There is never any swell or waves inside the Hole, and visibility is usually between 15 - 30 meters (50 - 100 feet). At the surface the Blue Hole is 25 x 35m (80 x 120 feet), but opens out after 20m (60 feet) into a cavern with a diameter of at least 100m (330 feet).

It is still unknown how Dean's Blue Hole was formed, as it is almost twice as deep as any of the other Blue Holes in the Caribbean that were formed when limestone chambers caved in from above. One hypothesis is that a much deeper cave slowed moved upward as its ceiling eroded away.

A school of tarpon hang in the shadows at 30m (100 feet) and a friendly turtle sometimes comes into the hole for a break from the ocean swells. The coral caves and sand banks on the side of the entrance harbour all kinds of tropical reef fish, groupers and snappers.