Fun Fact Friday: World's Deepest Pool

This summer has marked an impressive advancement in indoor dive pools. Opening in May of this year, the pool known as “Y-40” became the world’s deepest pool at 131 feet deep. Today’s fun fact Friday is all about Y-40 - a true feat of engineering.

• The world's deepest pool is located in a small commune called Montegrotto Terme that is just seven miles southwest of Padua, the Italian town where Shakespeare set his famous comedy “The Taming of the Shrew.”

• Motegrotto Terme is one of the communes in the Euganean Hills—a group of volcanic formations that are all between 300-600 meters high.

• The pool is located inside a 4-star hotel called Terme Millepini.

• Although it’s inside of a hotel, Y-40 is open and available to the public.

• The project was designed by renowned architect Emanuele Boaretto who consulted many professionals in the world of underwater sports when designing and building the world's deepest pool.

• Boaretto said his goal was to ultimately “build the best swimming pool in the world.”

• The project was 100% Italian, using Italian design, materials, and labor.

• The pool is 21 X 18 meters on the surface (69 X 59 feet) and has a maximum depth of 40 meters (131) feet

• Y-40 has a capacity of holding 4,300 cubic meters of spa water.

• The water’s temperature is kept between 32-34° C (89-91° Fahrenheit) so that scuba and free divers alike could use the pool without the use of a wet suit.

• The opening of Y-40 marked a dethroning of the previous world’s deepest pool—Belgium’s “Nemo 33” which was seven meters shallower than the new Italian pool.

• Y-40 is open 365 a year.

• The pool’s name comes from the “Y” axis on the Cartesian coordinate system and the “40” is in reference to how deep the pool is (40 meters underground).

• The pool is also nicknamed “The Deep Joy” and that name is featured on the surface next to the pool.

• The pool has various intermediate depths and four artificial caves for scuba dive training.

• You can book a particular platform at the varying levels to practice or perform different activities.

• Speaking of activities, you can scuba dive, free dive, do aquatic fitness, Watsu, and other water sports for all kinds of people including pregnant women and small children.

• The pool offers beginner scuba dive training as well as professional diving instruction for experts.

• You can book the pool for underwater photograph or film production.

• Some of the other unique features are an attached classroom adjacent to the pit that can be used for pre-dive briefings or training courses, a convention center that has six meeting rooms, and a tube that goes through the water in the pool for spectators to observe the underwater happenings.

• The pool has officially gotten the title from Guinness World Records as “The World’s Deepest Pool.”