Azure Window
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 The restored Azure Window from the south | |
| Maltese | It-Tieqa tad-Dwejra |
|---|---|
| Island | Gozo |
| Type | Natural sea arch (restored, the real one fell in 2017) |
| In Minecraft | |
Coordinates
Block X / Z: -17260 / -13728 /tp @s -17260 90 -13728 | |
| In save | Gozo full (11 October 2026) |
| Real world | |
Lat / lon
36.0536° N, 14.1884° E | |
| Built from | 2012 land and seabed survey (taken while the arch still stood), photos from 1989–2017 |
The Azure Window (Maltese: It-Tieqa tad-Dwejra) was a natural limestone arch on the west coast of Dwejra, Gozo, and one of the best-known sights of the islands. It collapsed in a storm on 8 March 2017. In Malta in Minecraft it stands again, at full size, as it was before it fell.
How it differs from the real place today
- It is still standing. Today only the stump of the cliff and the rubble on the seabed are left. The world shows the arch as it was in its last years: a tall pillar in the sea, a thin slab across the top, and an opening you can sail a boat through.
- Its shape is modelled, not measured. The 2012 survey still recorded the arch, but a laser flown overhead only sees the top, so the survey shows a solid spur of rock. The opening was cut into that spur and shaped from photos.
What to see
| What | Size in the world |
|---|---|
| Opening | about 21 m wide at the waterline, 22 m high, with a rounded, uneven top |
| Slab over the opening | about 4 m thick over most of the span, thicker where it meets the cliff and the pillar |
| Pillar | the wide, heavy part of the arch, set back under the slab like a table top, with a dark notch where the slab meets it |
| Water under the arch | 7–14 m deep, from the 2012 seabed survey, deeper to the west |
| Top of the arch | about 26 m above the sea (y 89) |
- Sail through it: the opening is open water from the surface to the seabed, so a boat goes straight through.
- Dive under it: the sea floor under the arch has scattered boulders, and the pillar's foot goes down to the seabed.
- From above: the Blue Hole is the round pool on the rock shelf just south of the arch.
-
Through the opening, looking north -
From the sea, south-west -
From above, with the Blue Hole
Sources
- Rock spur and seabed: the 2012 land and seabed survey, flown while the arch still stood.
- Opening, pillar and slab: modelled from photos taken between 1989 and 2017.
- Sea floor under the arch: follows the surveyed seabed around it. The boulders are modelled.
Trivia
- The arch in the world stands on survey data from 2012, five years before the real one collapsed.
- The real Azure Window was a filming location for the first season of Game of Thrones.
See also
- Dwejra: the bay, Fungus Rock and the Blue Hole
- Inland Sea: the lagoon and its tunnel, a few hundred metres east
- Blog: Rebuilding the Azure Window and the Inland Sea tunnel
