Southwest Madagascar
Anjanamba
- CertificationFull cave
- SpecialSidemount
Diving and fills
Dive here with
What it looks like
All 1 videos and posts
Videos and posts
From other divers, via YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. They only load when you click; after that, Google's or Meta's privacy rules apply.
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Other people's footage, not advice: how someone else dives here says nothing about what suits your team. Dive within your training.
The dive
A cave with no real main passage: flow from every direction carved sharp angles and colours into it, and at the entrance of one of the large passages two rocks stand guard like dragons.
Profile and sections
A cave with no real main passage: flow from every direction carved sharp angles and colours into it, and at the entrance of one of the large passages two rocks stand guard like dragons. Beyond a long narrow passage and a restriction lies the Fahazoa Hall, with crystal-clear water and so large that your lights don't reach all of it.
Phillip Lehman and Ryan Dart found the cave in 2016 through rumours of 'La Piscine'; members of the Mikea, for whom the place is sacred, first let Lehman snorkel. By 2017 7.3 km had been mapped, then the longest submerged cave in Madagascar, and in 2019 the team added over 10 km with sidemount rebreathers. The hall is named after chief Fahazoa, who allowed the dives and performed the rituals; he died in 2019.
Practical: only with an organised expedition, permission and the ritual. The cave has one entrance and the farthest lines are nearly 3 km from it.
- Depth and profile
- Average ~20 m; the Fahazoa Hall is flooded to 24 m, and in 2019 a narrow vertical shaft dropped 30 m deeper to another chamber. Maximum depth not published · explored: 7.3 km (2017), then over 10 km of new passages in 2019.
- Configuration
- Sidemount; the farthest parts lie beyond restrictions too tight for a back-mounted rebreather, and the explorers dived sidemount CCR. Axolot dives here with one or two stages.
Who can dive where
- At least Full cave
- Configurations: Sidemount / CCR
- Experienced divers only
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
In the Mikea Forest, the northern part of the Mahafaly plateau; Axolot stays in Andavadoaka. A short truck ride and an easy walk to a large opening at the foot of a baobab. A sacred place: permission from the mayor and the village chief, and a purification ritual before diving.
Around Anjanamba
FillsNo fill station known nearby
Caves nearby4
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