Ain Heet Cave is one of 1,826 caves and dunes distributed across twelve regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It contains a water well about fifteen m deep that consists of limestone and anhydrite rocks. The cave is located southeast of Riyadh City, near al-Kharj Governorate. The Quality of Life program, one of Saudi Vision 2030 programs, listed it among the top fourteen landmarks for tourist and guided tours in Riyadh Province.
Ain Heet Cave entrance
The entrance to the cave is about seventy-four m wide and its depth ranges between approximately 180 to 200 m on a slope that widens downward. There are large rock collapses and slides, which makes going down into it dangerous.
Ain Heet represents one of the famous sinkholes in the Riyadh Province, as it is an entrance to a vast underground water reservoir located deep below the earth's surface.
Ain Heet Cave discovery
Historically, the discovery of caves in the Kingdom dates back to its ancient inhabitants, as caves served as shelters that protected them from the heat, cold, and sandstorms. As for Ain Heet Cave, it was discovered by geologists who responded to the invitation of the founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud to conduct the first surface exploration of the anhydrite rock in the Kingdom.
Years later, a number of cave explorers visited Ain Heet Cave with their heavy equipment. They reached the edge of a lake situated 120 m below the surface. Using breathing apparatuses, they explored the cave's water-filled passages, which contained water that was clearer than they had seen anywhere else in the world, according to the documents in which they recorded the cave's details.
Caves and sinkholes, in addition to being tourist attractions and historical landmarks in the Kingdom that formed millions of years ago, also serve as a scientific resource enriching geological and geomorphological research. Their significance is not limited to their aesthetic value alone. They also provide clear details about the climate, surface processes, and the types of animals, and plants that lived in prehistoric times. The precise chemical analysis of cave sediments allows for determining the age of these sediments and provides a chronological and chemical record of past climatic changes. It also reveals information about the presence of different isotopes of carbon and sulfur and the effects of some other elements that were in the atmosphere when those sediments formed.
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