Chapati Tilas

Chapati Tilas is an intermediate dive site in Mulaku Atoll featuring a series of small, rounded thilas — submerged pinnacles — that rise from the atoll floor like scattered chapatis on an underwater table. These formations, each with its own coral garden and marine community, create a dive of delightful variety as you swim between the pinnacles, discovering the unique character of each one. The descent reveals the charming layout of the site — multiple small thilas scattered across the seabed, each one a self-contained ecosystem rising to different heights and displaying different coral compositions. The visual effect from mid-water is of an underwater archipelago, and the sense of exploration as you navigate from one pinnacle to the next gives the dive a journey-like quality that single-formation sites lack. Each thila has its own personality. Some are topped with dense hard coral gardens alive with damselfish and anthias, while others are dominated by soft coral growth that cascades down their sides in vivid colors. The gaps between thilas channel current that creates localized nutrient upwellings, attracting fish in concentrated bands of activity. Schools of bannerfish stream between the pinnacles, while Napoleon wrasse make circuits of the entire formation complex with proprietary confidence. The intimate scale of the individual thilas makes them perfect for detailed observation. Nudibranchs navigate the coral surfaces, cleaner shrimp station themselves at prominent points, and the careful observer will spot frogfish, leaf scorpionfish, and other masters of camouflage among the coral growth. Reef sharks occasionally patrol the outer edges of the thila complex, and eagle rays sweep through the channels between formations. Chapati Tilas captures a playful side of Maldivian diving — a site where the serious marine richness of the atoll is presented in a format that feels like an underwater treasure hunt, with each small pinnacle offering its own discoveries and every swim between them producing new encounters.