Jabal Al Qarah 1986-1988
A locally famous sandstone attraction, east of Hofuf.
- Jabal Al Qarah is a sandstone outcrop, with every fracture opened out into a series of gullies, with the ridges forming row upon row of fins and hoodoos.
- Gullies and valleys.
- Fractured hills.
- Double gully.
- Walking through the gullies.
- Hoodoos lining the sides of a gully.
- Masters of Hoodoo.
- Sphinx, and two of my sisters.
- Surrounded.
- Hoodoo and fin group.
- Deposited caliche (natural calcite cement) and dissolved sandstone.
- Rotten rock.
- Mushrooms.
- Toadstool.
- Stumps, with my sister, and the daughter of "the other Englishman in Hofuf".
- Climbing the clefts between hoodoos.
- Up to the remains of an adobe house.
- My dad, and some milk bottles.
- Natural bridges and caves.
- One of the major features and attractions of Jabal Al Qarah is Ghar Al Nashab, a 1.5 km long cave system, formed along multiple parallel fractures within the sandstone.
- This would actually have been my first ever cave, but I do not count it, since it is a show cave. The cave is lit with street lamps, and consists mostly of a large number of easy walking, sandy floored passages.
- The cave lies just below the surface, and every time the roof rises, it breaks out as a daylight shaft.
- An outlying part, with its own caves.
- Sadly it seems that littering is a global problem.
- Cave tunnel.