Sipadan Island, its location off the east coast of Sabah, Malaysia's eastern most state, and lies on the north-eastern corner of Borneo, the world's third largest island and the only oceanic island rising 2,000 feet from the seabed.

Ever since diving celebrity Jacques Cousteau raved about the diversity of marine life, this dive mecca has been indisputably the most well-known & popular scuba spot in the world!

According to geologist, Sipadan Island was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop.

Due to Sipadan Island is located at the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, the centre of one of the richest marine ecosystem in the world. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in these habitats.

The Sipadan diving legend has passed through the world's dive community to the extent that all divers with an interest in visiting the best sites in the world have this small island near the top of their wish list.

Sipadan Island was at the top of Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine Gold List for 'The Top Dive Destination in the World'. In fact the island shared its top spot with two other destinations known for the amazing diversity of their marine life - the Galapagos Islands and Truk in Micronesia

The list of attractions is quite staggering and all the more exceptional as it involves big fish encounters, something very rare in Asia these days - at Barracuda Point you can find yourself surrounded by a spiraling vortex of barracuda, so large that the sunlight is often clouded out.

At South Point there are scores of reef sharks, large schools of passing tribally and herds of massive marauding bump head parrotfish. When diving in Sipadan everywhere you turn you'll see turtles, munching on the sponges and algae, or lazing on the wall ledges.

If you take the time to look closely at the walls you'll see a wealth of macro life and fish species to rival most destinations, although this is often overlooked due to the other major attractions vying for your attention.