Majlis al-Jinn
| Majlis al-Jinn
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 A person on the cave floor |
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| Location: | Eastern Hajar Mountains , Salmah Plateau | |
| Height : | 1366 m | |
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Geographic location: |
22 ° 52 '50.3 " N , 59 ° 6' 18.7" E | |
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The Majlis al-Jinn cave ( Arabic كهف مجلس الجن, DMG kahf maǧlis al-ǧinn 'Assembly Cave of the Djinn ', also Majlis al-Jin , English Seating of the Spirits ) is located on the Arabian Peninsula , in the Sultanate of Oman . It is located in the eastern part of the Hajar Mountains , on the Salmah Plateau near Umq, at around 1,366 meters above sea level and, with 58,000 square meters, is the ninth largest known cave chamber in the world by area.
The Majlis al-Djinn cave consists of a single, dome-shaped hall with a height of up to 120 meters. It is 310 meters long and 225 meters wide. The cave is around 158 meters deep, at the deepest point even 178 meters. The cover is around 40 meters - from the outside the cave is only accessible through three relatively small openings in the Salma Plateau. The cave is located at the northern end of the Salma Plateau, about 20 kilometers inland from the village of Fins, Wilayat Quriat , Mascat Governorate , which is on the coast of the Indian Ocean .
The plateau is made of Tertiary limestone . The age of the cave is estimated to be around 40,000 years. The temperature in the cave is around 17-18 ° C.
Majlis al-Djinn was discovered accidentally in 1983 while searching for carbon rocks to explore deep underground water supplies. The geologist Don Davidson was the first to descend through an opening in the cave, from which he had to abseil 118 meters. His wife Cheryl Jones abseiled through the deepest opening in the cave the following year - the drop is 158 meters here. In 1985, Don Jones climbed the cave through the third opening.
In the early 2000s, a team from Chapman University in Orange , California , researched the cave scientifically. Driving into the cave requires experience and appropriate equipment. The Omani tourism industry is interested in a touristic development of the cave, which is only about ten kilometers from the coastal highway . In the meantime it has been reported that the cave was closed to the public after base jumpers jumped into it repeatedly . In 2014, Stefan Glowacz and Chris Sharma managed to climb out of the cave from the ground on a 300 meter long climbing route.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ NSS GEO2 Committee on Long and Deep Caves: The Largest Underground Chambers by Surface Area
- ↑ a b Gatis Pavils: Majlis al Jinn. In: WonderMondo. August 17, 2010, accessed January 27, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Majlis Al Jinn Cave - Oman Tourism Portal
- ↑ Lilian and Jan Schreurs: Majlis Al Jinn. March 2005, accessed January 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Gregory Crouch: Deep in Arabia, scientists descend into some of the world's largest caverns. Their mission: To see if tourists could one day explore Oman's caves without putting their lives on the line. National Geographic magazine, April 2003, archived from the original on December 12, 2016 ; accessed on April 17, 2011 (English).
- ↑ David Light: Cave-ing in to pressure? In: Khaleej Times. March 29, 2008, accessed January 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Glowacz and Sharma climb the longest cave roof in the world. In: bergstieg.com. March 19, 2014, accessed January 27, 2019 .