Majlis al Jinn Cave Chamber In Oman
G'day folks,
Here is another interesting place in Oman.
This giant underground cave chamber can only be
accessed through a small opening at the top.
Majlis al Jinn is the second largest cave chamber in the
world by surface area. The base of the cave is 624,000 square feet, the
size of nearly 11 football fields. However the only way to get in is through
one of three tiny openings at the top, all of which have been formed over
time as the accumulation of rainwater dissolved the limestone covering.
This cave chamber, located 60
miles from Muscat, was discovered by Americans Don Davidson Jr. and his wife
Cheryl Jones in 1983. They noticed the strange holes in the ground on aerial
photographs, and eventually made the journey out via helicopter. When they
looked down into the small openings, they saw the sandy floor below - over
500 feet down. Just days later, they rappelled down for the first time.
In an attempt
to find an appropriate name for the chamber, they asked the Omanis in the
surrounding area if they had a local name for it, to which the response was no.
They did, however, mention that they believed that the cave was filled with
genies, which are prevalent in Omani mythology and the Quran. In Arabic, the
word for “genie” is “al-Jinn”, so hence, the American explorers named the cave
is “Majlis al Jinn. “Majlis” means “meeting place,” making the cave name,
“the meeting place of the genies.”
This cave room has become a hot spot for
abseilers and BASE jumpers. A small hole at the top sheds a beam of light into
the vast base. Strangely, the bottom of this chamber appears to be a sort of
graveyard for goats (who presumably fell in), snakes, and birds - their bones
littering the floor.
Clancy's comment: Extraordinary. It certainly is an interesting part of the world. What will they find next?
I'm ...
