Richard Branson to take submarine down 'The Great Blue Hole', world's largest sinkhole in Belize.

The Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize.
it's large enough to fit two Boeing 747 jumbo jets inside.
Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

It looks, at first, like a giant, flat, ink blot in the sea, but underneath this sinkhole – the largest in the world – is a cavern large enough to swallow two Boeing 747s with room to spare.

Famed marine explorer Jacques Cousteau didn't discover the sinkhole, located in the Caribbean sea off the coast of Belize, but he did name it "The Great Blue Hole" in 1971, and it's been a magnet for scuba divers ever since.

Now, in the first mission of its kind, Cousteau's grandson and Sir Richard Branson are plunging to the deep, dark bottom of it in a submarine as part of an expedition that will be streamed live and broadcasted globally on the Discovery Channel.

Full story at Traveller.

By Annabel Fenwick Elliott.