History of Exploration
According to tradition Sof Omar was the name of a Muslim holy man who lived in the area and Ayiew the name of his daughter. Maco and Holuca are local names for "name" and "cave".
The explorer Arthur Donaldson Smith recorded his visit to the cave in 1894. An Italian expedition also visited in 1913. In 1934, Henri Breuil conducted some archaeological investigations in the area. The Italians almost certainly visited the cave during the occupation years, but apparently none of these early explorers made a through trip from Ayiew Maco to Holuca.
In 1967, Eric Robson, Chris Clapham and Kabir Ahmed explored and surveyed the cave recording 8 km of passage. Following this the Ethiopian Tourist Board published a brochure about the cave. Although the area was not easily accessible and the "Adventure" Tourist industry did not exist, a few intrepid visitors made the trip to the then remote cave.
In February 1971 Professor Théodore Monod of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in France, Bill Morton (ex Manchester University Speleological Society caver) a geologist at Haile Selassie I University, and Ato Mejmare Hsilemalid recorded another 1 km new passages to the known cave. In the same year Dick Ashford and Malcolm Largen of Haile Selassie University made a study of some of the bats in the cave.
In 1972, the British Expedition to Ethiopia arrived. The team included Dick Ramsden and Tim Renvoize (Preston Caving Club), Simon Amatt (Birmingham Plytechnic Karabiner Club), Dave Catlin (University of Bradford Pothole Club), Paul Ramsden (Whernside Manor Scout Centre), Terry Raynor (9th and 12th Royal Lancers) and Steve Worthington (Sheffield University Speleological Society). With some initial help from Bill Morton the group made a systematic exploration and survey of the cave and published a full report of the Sof Omar caves in the Transactions of the Cave Research Group of Great Britain. The team discovered 6.1 kilometres (3.8 mi) of new passages bringing the survey total to 15.1 kilometres (9.4 mi).
Read more about this topic: Sof Omar Caves
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