A scuba diver swims inside an ice cave in Lake Sassolo in Sambuco Valley, Ticino, Switzerland

These photographs show the beautiful and eerie underwater world of a Swiss ice-filled Alpine lake. Taken in Lake Sassolo, close to the southern border with Italy, these shots were taken by diving photographer Franco Banfi

An ice wall seen from underwater, with the mountains in the background

The giant ice structures dwarf the divers as they explore the nooks and crannies of the icebergs

The pictures show the lake's massive ice formations, smoothed by the flow of the water into unusual formations.

Some formations seem out of this world.


An alien like opening above a diver.


An underwater iceberg drarfs the diver.





Near the surface it is much brighter.