First exploration of Lava-tube caves in Arabia with John Roobol
The Caves of Kishb Chapter 13 of “Underground in Arabia” by John Pint The project to hunt for caves in the vast, volcanic wastes of western Saudi Arabia, got its start with a little push from “the grand old man of US caving,” Bill Halliday. No sooner had I arrived at the Saudi Geologicial Survey in Jeddah, than I was handed a computer printout by my new boss, Mahmoud. “Someone has sent you an Email, John,” he told me. Well, I didn’t even have an Email address yet, so I figured this must really be important…and so it was: “I notice there are lava fields not far from Jeddah,” wrote Halliday. “Are there any lava tubes to be found?” Well, I repeated that question to quite a few French, US and Saudi geologists during the next few months, but none of them could give me an answer. “The man you need to talk to,” they all replied, “is Dr. John Roobol. He spent years in those miserable lava fields. Right now he’s on leave, but he’ll be back.” Nearly a year went by before John Roobol finished sai