Caves
Beneath the harsh deserts of Saudi Arabia lie dark chambers and complex mazes filled with crystalline structures, stalactites and stalagmites. The limestone floor of the Summan plateau, a karst area to the east of the ad-Dahna desert, is riddled with such caves, known locally as Dahls. Some have tiny entrances which open into caves, others lead into a maze of passages which can be several kilometers long. Local Bedouin have always known these caves and some were used as water supplies. They were first systematically studied in the 1981, and later explored and reported by the Saudi Geological Survey.
Read more about this topic: Ad-Dahna Desert
Famous quotes containing the word caves:
“At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!’
Who listened to his voice, obeyed his cry?
Only the echoes, which he made relent,
Rung from their marble caves ‘Repent! Repent!’”
—William Drummond, of Hawthornden (1585–1649)
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)