The researchers descended for the first time into the famous Yemeni sinkhole “Hell’s Well”. They reported their findings to Agence France-Presse.
Cavers from Oman became the first people to descend to the bottom of the 112-meter-deep Hell’s Well in Yemen. Locals consider this place to be the gateway to the underworld, which is teeming with jinn.
The natural sinkhole, officially known as the Barkhout Well, has a frighteningly circular entrance about 30m in diameter. It is located in the middle of the desert in the Al-Mahra province in eastern Yemen, near the border with Oman. Amateur cavers have entered the funnel before, but no one has reached the bottom of the sinkhole.
Last week, a team of 10 researchers from the Omani Caves Exploration Team (OCET) explored the Barhout well. They used a pulley system. It is usually used to reduce the effort required to lift a load. The more pulleys used in the system, the easier it will be to lift the object. Eight members of the group descended to the bottom of the hole, the other two remained at the top.
During the investigation of the well, experts found snakes, dead animals and cave pearls, but they did not find any jinn or a passage to hell. The cave pearls were gray and lemon green. The formation consists of balls of calcite that form in karst caves due to dripping water.
“We have collected samples of water, rocks, soil and some dead animals, but have not yet analyzed them,” Mohammed al-Kindi, professor of geology at the German University of Technology in Oman, told AFP. He added that the full report of the expedition will be released soon.
The exact age of the Barkhout well is unknown, but, according to scientists, it is most likely millions of years old.
