Mind the gap: tourists drawn to Oman's giant sinkholes

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WILAYAT TAQUH, Oman — Shrouded in fog in the lush mountains of southern Oman, a giant chasm plunges into the landscape, echoing with mysterious sounds that have spawned myths and legends among nearby tribes.

This enormous sinkhole is one of four that dot Dhofar governorate, including one of the world’s biggest: the yawning Kahf Teiq, up to 211 metres (692 feet) deep and 150 metres wide.

At the Tawi Atair sinkhole, tourists potter around on concrete paths and stairways. Not all of the holes are so welcoming, however.

The sheer drop of the Sheeheet pit, a 40-minute drive away along mountain roads, is ringed with slippery mud, prompting the authorities to put up a fence and warning signs.

During AFP’s visit, one tourist slipped and slid perilously close to the edge. Dhofar’s governor, Marwan bin Turki Al-Said, gave assurances that safety was a priority at the sinkholes, in a briefing attended by AFP.

Tawi Atair means “Well of Birds” in Dhofar’s regional language, a reference to the avian twittering, distorted by echoes, that reverberates off the rock.

It lay unknown to the outside world until 1997, when a team of Slovenian researchers working with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University brought it to international attention.

Now the sinkholes are marketed as a tourist attraction in Dhofar, whose temperate climate draws many visitors from the Gulf during its punishing summers.

Dhofar folklore has it that the sinkholes were created by meteorite strikes, direct hits from outer space that gouged the colossal craters.

But Ali Faraj Al-Kathiri, a geologist based in Dhofar, explains that water seeping into the porous limestone forms an acid that dissolves it, creating the caverns over a period of thousands of years.

The Oman sinkholes are not to be confused with the “Well of Hell,” the foul-smelling, pitch-black Barhout pit across the border in eastern Yemen that is reputed as a prison for demons.