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Deep Caves Adveture in Oman
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.
The government has invited geologists in Oman to examine the country's spectacular limestone caves. Research team systematically survey the caves, using satellite-based global positioning technology to pinpoint cave entrances, lasers to calculate interior volumes, and air-monitoring sniffers to check for harmful levels of gases, such as carbon dioxide. The team's biologists gather and analyze water samples and inventory the flora and fauna both above and below the surface.
Someday Oman's lucrative oil reserves will be pumped dry, so the government is encouraging economic diversification of all kinds—from copper mines to cookie factories. The caves, they hope, could be developed into a tourist attraction like New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which generates more than 30 million dollars a year.
Tawi Attair, the Well of the Birds, a huge sinkhole within the massif. Twenty miles (30 kilometers) east of Salalah the mountains squeeze toward the sea, and we turn away from the coast onto a road that rises into the highlands. Walls of stacked limestone blocks bound the fields, where cattle and camels graze on natural terraces—abundant herds that embody the wealth of these mountain tribesmen, the Jabalis. The landscape is emerald green.
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Ground vanishes—Tawi Attair, a 690-foot (210-meter) hole that formed when a cave roof collapsed long ago. Inside, it's big enough to fit a 50-story skyscraper. Great curtains of green foliage festoon the walls. Hundreds of swifts, rock doves, and even a few raptors pinwheel inside. Their coos and twitters well up to the lip. Suddenly the idea of tourists stepping out of a bus to admire this monstrous hole doesn't seem so far-fetched.
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