The Blue Lagoon is not a lagoon at all, but a narrow channel of shallow sea trapped between the island of Comino and the islet of Cominotto. The seabed here is pale sand, and sunlight passing through the water scatters into the turquoise that gives the strait its name. Comino itself measures roughly 3.
5 square kilometres, and its permanent population has dwindled to a handful of residents.
The island takes its name from cumin, the spice once cultivated on its terraces. For centuries Comino served the Knights of St John as a hunting ground and a quarantine station; the Santa Marija Tower, a squat coastal fort built in 1618 under Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, still watches over the approach. Boats running the blue lagoon malta boat trip from st paul's bay pass beneath this tower on the way in, tracing a route that fishermen and smugglers used long before tourism reached the channel. A blue lagoon malta boat trip from st paul's bay tour today follows the same limestone coastline, past sea caves worn into the cliffs of both Comino and neighbouring Gozo.
Gozo, the larger northern island, anchors the wider archipelago that these cruises explore. Its Ġgantija temples predate the pyramids of Giza, and the Crystal Lagoon — a deep, sheltered inlet near Comino — draws its own name from the clarity of its water. Many Comino cruise itineraries thread both, pairing the shallow turquoise of the main channel with the darker sapphire of the caves. The comino blue lagoon cruise has become the defining day excursion of the Maltese summer, and the surrounding waters form part of a designated marine conservation zone.
The geology explains the colour. Comino's coast is Globigerina and coralline limestone, porous and pale, and the shallow shelf reflects light upward through unusually clear Mediterranean water. There is no river runoff to cloud it. Powerboat and catamaran operators departing the northern bays have carried visitors here for decades, and Gozo, Comino & Blue Lagoon cruises remain among the most requested experiences in the islands. The Santa Marija Bay chapel, the Blue Lagoon channel, and the caves together compose a small archipelago that has drawn swimmers, painters, and film crews alike — the strait stood in for open ocean in more than one feature production.
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