Diving Cleobulus Tomb in Lindos, Rhodes

In June 2026, I dove Cleobulus Tomb off the northern headland of Lindos Bay in Rhodes, Greece, also known as the "Great Cave of Lindos."

‍This is one of the best dives in Rhodes, and I was lucky enough to encounter a critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal inside it.

The site is named for Cleobulus, one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece, a philosopher and a poet whose stone tomb sits on the headland directly above the cave.

The cave itself is a cathedral-like formation with a main entrance around 25 meters (82 ft), and drop-offs that fall away from 35 down to 110 meters (361 ft).

The Dive

I dove Cleobulus Tomb with @lepiadive leaving out of St Paul's inlet.

Meeting a Mediterranean Monk Seal

While inside, I came face to face with a Mediterranean monk seal, an endangered species with fewer than 700 remaining in the wild as of 2015.

With that alone, I would have been happy with this dive.

I had never dove with a seal before, let alone one that is critically endangered.

After we came back from the second chamber we went and looked around the same spot again, and got lucky twice.

The owner of Lepia Dive Center told me afterwards how rare that is.

They only spot them two or three times a season.

The week before my dive they had come across a monk seal and her pup in this same cave.

Monk seals are thought to raise their young inside caves and caverns that are only reachable on scuba, because it keeps predators and people away from the pups.

Marine Life

Sea caves have a completely different ecosystem to the reef outside.

They have far less light and far fewer nutrients, so what lives inside is not what you on the outside.

On the floor of the first chamber there was a translucent shrimp I had not come across before.

Parking & Logistics

We left out of St. Paul's Bay, and a small RIB drops you right outside the cavern entrance.

From there, we dropped down to around 70 ft (22 m) the entrance to the cavern.

Because of the overhead environment, most charters around Lindos will only take you here if you have dived with them before and they know your skill level.

If you want to dive this one, plan an extra day of diving earlier that week so they can see you in the water first.

I dove it with Lepia Dive Center.

Dive Conditions

Visibility on my dive was 35 ft (11 m). Water temperature was 73.4°F / 23°C.

I wore a 5 mm and was comfortable. A hood would have made it nicer.

This site is recommended for Advanced certified divers given the cave's depth range and entry requirements.

The cave drops away well below where we dived. Lepia use that deeper section for a lot of their tech training, and I would have liked to see it, but it was not something I could do on this trip.