Rising from a depth of more than 600 meters from the bottom of the Celebes Sea, just a few miles from the coast of Sabah (45 minutes by speedboat in calm seas), Pulau Sipadan is just a small island, the top of a long-lost lava chimney from a prehistoric volcano: its topside covered by a lush and thick tropical forest and ringed by a sandy beach, its shallow surrounding coral reefs suddenly giving way to precipitous vertical drop-offs, falling down to the abyss below.

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