One of scuba diving’s most iconic landmarks – Gozo Island’s Azure Window — has collapsed into the Mediterranean Sea.

Mark Evans, Scuba Diver UK’s editor-in-chief, has reported that “a fierce winter storm swept on to the island [and the Azure Window] archway finally succumbed, collapsing into the sea.”

The formation was anchored on the east end by the seaside cliff, arching over open water, to be anchored to a free standing pillar in the sea to the west of the cliff.

Thousands of tourists, including scuba divers, visited the picturesque formation, which was the result of two limestone caves collapsing. The formation was anchored on the east end by a seaside cliff to the west, by a free-standing pillar in the sea. Gozo is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, one of 21 that make up the Maltese archipelago.

Tieqa tad-Dwejra, as the Azure Window is known in Malta, frames the Blue Hole dive site.

"The Azure Window was one of those iconic dives which stays with you long after you have left the water,” said Evans. “One of my favorite dives was to go out through the Inland Sea, then bear left around the cliff face, swim through the boulders that were strewn beneath the Azure Window, and then surface through the similarly legendary Blue Hole. The arch of the Window would be clearly visible as you swam underneath, and it made for some fantastic photographs. On a more positive note, I can't wait to get out there and see the new topography nature has provided us with now.”

Professional underwater photographer Tobias Friedrich had one memorable dive there. “The Blue Hole has an excellent view to the Azure Window,” he recalled. “We started the dive in the Blue Hole and emerged from that cave through a big hole at about 10 to 12 meters. From there, we could go left and again into a small chimney that went upwards again and ended in a shallow lake called Coral Garden, just opposite of the Azure Window.”

Previous winter storms had been eroding the structure, and walking across the top of the archway had been banned.