Umm Jirsan lava-tube cave, Saudi Arabia
The full story of Saudi Arabia's longest cave, now under study by archaeologists (Photos by John Pint unless otherwise indicated. Adapted from chapter 17 of the book Underground in Arabia by John Pint) By John Pint Recently, Dr. Mathew Stewart and members of the Palaeodeserts Project published "First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave." Here we find scientific results. But what is the story of the first explorations of this historic cave-- the human story? That story begins in 2007... After crawling around in viper-infested limestone caves in northern Saudi Arabia, it was time for a change and we decided to pay a visit to what I consider the most fascinating lava field in the whole country: Harrat Khaybar, home of the celebrated Black and White Volcanoes. I must confess we were partly motivated by hopes of finding a lava tube longer than Al Fahda Cave in Jordan which held the record for being the longest surveyed la...