Majlis al Jinn
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Majlis al Jinn is the eighth largest[1] cave chamber in the world. It is located in a remote area of the Selma Plateau at around 1,600 meters a.s.l. in The Sultanate of Oman.
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[edit] Description
Access to the cavern is through one of two roof collapses. From outside there are only two small pits visible, typical dolines or sink holes[2]. The first ten meters are a chimney, 2 or 3 meters across. Then the cave widens like a bell and forms a single enromous chamber, between 120 and 150 metres high and the floor about 300 by 200 metres. This equals a floor area of 58,000 m². To give an idea of scale: the Great pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the largest Eygptian pyramid, would almost exactly fit inside the cave chamber! Its base is approximately the area of the chamber floor, and its height is also similar. Many texts, including the official description by the Oman government, erroneously tell it was the second largest cave chamber on earth[3]. However, this superlative is changing now and then, at the moment (2008) Majlis al Jinn is on position eight concerning floor area[1].
Below the entrance holes goat and other bird bones were found, obviously from animals which have fallen in. The openings in the ceiling provide ambient light at the bottom most of the day. They are also the only possibility to enter the cave, and there are no passages branching off the chamber, except probably passages covered by cave sediments and thus inaccessible. The cave is part of a network of caves on the Selma Plateau whose resurgence is at Kaff Ta'iari near the top of Wadi Fins.
[edit] Access
The cave entrance is open and the access to the cave is neither restricted nor prohibited. There have been no known fatalities nor serious injuries so far, possibly because until recently there was no road there and cavers had to be serious enough about their sport to hike their equipment in or rent donkeys from a village 1.5 hour's walk from the cave entrance. This may change in the future, there is now a rough road going up from near Tiwi on the coast to the Selma Plateau and the vicinity of the cave.
The doline normally used to enter the cave is a drop of 178 meters - as measured by the discoverer Don Davidson - or 158 meters, according to the Government of Oman Ministry of Tourism website[4]. There is a bolt hole at the top. The trip requires 200m of rope and some physical fitness, as the climb out up the rope normally takes 45 minutes to an hour. There is a logbook where many cavers have recorded their successful entries into the cave.
[edit] History
The entrances were discovered in 1983 by Don Davidson, a geologist studying water resources in the Sultanate. Davidson presumably died some ten years later when he left Oman permanently and went hiking in the Andes. He rented a car, drove it to a trailhead, left a note on it saying where he was going, and was never seen again.
In 2002 the cave was explored by Louise Hose, a rather famous American caver. This tour was featured by the National Geographic Magazine in the April 2003 issue[5]. This is the first time the cave became known to a wider public.
In 2008 the Ministry of Tourism[4] issued the plan to develop the cave as a show cave. They developed another cave in Oman as the first show cave of the country and the high number of 75,000 visitors in the first year lead to the plan for a second show cave and other geologic tourist sites. However, they were not able to give any clue how they plan to solve the technical problems. To access the floor either a steep tunnel or an elevator shaft is necessary.
[edit] References
- ^ a b [Bob Gulden's Largest Underground Chambers by Surface Area]
- ^ "Majlis Al Jinn" Cave satellite imagery of the hole in the ground
- ^ [World’s second-largest cave to boost tourism - The National Newspaper]
- ^ a b Government of Oman Ministry of Tourism
- ^ Oman @ National Geographic Magazine
BBC Focus magazine, September 2005. Page 6.
