On an exploratory journey to study caves, the Omani Caves Explorations Team (OCET), in cooperation with the Yemen Geological Survey and Mineral Resources Board, visited Al Mahra Governorate in the Republic of Yemen to study Well of Barhout Cave, also nicknamed Well of Hell. The Well of Barhout, a giant hole located in the desert of Al Mahra, has remained unexplored for many years but the Omani team could successfully reveal its secrets and document what they had seen there. With love to experience and adventure, the cavers descended into the hole, at the bottom of the well and documented the environmental and geological characteristics of the sinkhole with a set of images and dates.<\/p>\n
Hole Location<\/p>\n
The team mentioned that a detailed report on the hole and its geological surveys will be released in the coming days. Such caves are formed by the dissolution of limestone, such as those found in the Dhofar governorate in southern Oman, and the Governorates of Mahra and Hadramout in Yemen. These layers inside the well are subjected to continuous dissolution due to the interaction of ground and surface waters that contain acids and salts forming huge pits and deep caves over millions of years.<\/p>\n
Geographical and Historic Features<\/p>\n
The Well of Barhout appears as a prominent feature that is clearly visible from satellite images. Its circular outer hole is about 30 meters wide. It is located between small plains and mountains, mostly made of limestone. Linked to many myths and legends that went viral in various media, the deep hole is 30 meters wide and 112 meters deep. At a depth of approximately 65cm from the surface, water emerges from holes and on the walls forming splendid waterfalls. This deep hole has been linked to many legends that have spread in various media, including that the pits contain huge crocodiles, that it is a dwelling for the jinn, that it contains tortured spirits, that it contains huge rivers, and that whoever tried to descend into it previously came out with a head without a body.<\/p>\n
Hole Dimensions and Most Prominent Features<\/p>\n
The depth of the hole is 112 m, and its width at the surface is 30 m. This width expands at the bottom of the pit to reach 116 meters. The width of the pit generally varies depending on the strength of the surrounding rocks of its various parts, as the pit expands relatively in the less solid rock layers. The circumference of the crater is generally circular in shape, and it contains many small cavities and sharp rocky ridges. At a depth of approximately 65 m from the surface, water emerges from the sides of the hole to form beautiful waterfalls. These waterfalls vary in the abundance and continuity of water flowing from them. The eastern waterfall is the most active, while the water flow is interrupted from the southern waterfall. The hole contains a variety of cave deposits, where a variety of living creatures live in it, including snakes, frogs, and beetles. Some stalagmites and stalactites are more than 9 meters long.<\/p>\n
The OCET members aim to explore more caves in the area, expressing their appreciation to the local authority for all the support extended to them during the visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On an exploratory journey to study caves, the Omani Caves Explorations Team (OCET), in cooperation with the Yemen Geological Survey and Mineral Resources Board, visited Al Mahra Governorate in the Republic of Yemen to study Well of Barhout Cave, also nicknamed Well of Hell. The Well of Barhout, a giant hole located in the desert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":758,"featured_media":4191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-en","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4289,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/4289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mcsy.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}