- Location: Ari Atoll
- Site Depth: 40 meters
- Site Visability: 10 - 25 meters
- Currents: Can be strong
- Difficulty Rating: Intermediate
A Protected Marine Area, this offers one of the best-known dives in the Maldives. There is a remarkable variety of marine life on the thila, including grey reef sharks, whitetip sharks, turtles, stonefish, frogfish, zebra morays, batfish and many, many more species. The thila is small enough - 30m (33yd) in diameter – that you can swim around it easily in a single dive but, as always, it is the point of the current that concentrates the underwater activity.
Jumping onto the top of the thila at 8m (25ft), and swimming due north you come to the edge of the thila, where there is a large coral overhang full of bright orange Tubastrea corals. At this point, looking out into the blue, you will see a satellite rock which is worth exploring. The top of the rock, at 15m (50ft), is covered in colourful soft corals. The vertical side sof the rock drop down to the atoll plate at 40m (130ft). In this channel between the satellite rock and the thila, grey reef sharks often patrol and we have seen guitar shark here on a number of occasions.