22/12/2025
𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼S𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁: 𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀, 𝗦𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶-𝗔𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗮
The geo-tour was organized in February 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The trip was organized as a follow-up to the publications of John Pint, which documented numerous cave discoveries and highlighted several unresolved geological and speleological features at the Volcano Jabal Al-Hil at the Harrat Kishb Volcanic field. Additionaly the group visited caves in the Harrat Rahat and in the Harrat Khaybar areas near to Medinah.
After a long preparation, in February 2025, a multi-national group of eleven participants went to Saudi Arabia with the primary objective of investigating the ‘cave question marks’ previously documented by John Pint. Many documented entrances—some as deep as 50 meters and visible as long as 90 meters—had remained unexplored due to past technical limitations. It was during the 2025 trip that these long-standing mysteries were to be finally unravelled.
The trip took place from February 15 to February 28, 2025 and the primary objective was to explore the volcanic region surrounding Jabal Al-Hil, an ash cone volcano located in the Harrat (i.e. lava field in the local terminology) Kishb. In the first days of our trip a basecamp was set up in the crater of one of the large shield volcanoes in the Harrat Al-Kishb area.
Altogether, more than eight caves were surveyed around Jabal Al-Hil. with a combined length of more than 1,3 kilometres. The deepest cave measured is 70 meters.
The northern region of the Harrat Rahat volcanic field, located just south of Medina near the first checkpoint, was the next area of focus. Several promising volcanoes situated east of the main road were examined during this stage of the visit.
The team gratefully acknowledge the support of the European Speleological Federation (FSE), Speleo Nederland (www.speleo.nl) , and Korda’s (https://sacidkordas.com/en/), without which this reconnaissance tour would not have been possible.
Read the full report at:https://www.eurospeleo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ESP_2025-01_Volcanic-Caving_Saudi-Arabia.pdf
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘰 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 (𝘌𝘚𝘗) 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘚𝘌 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘰 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘚𝘌 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: https://www.eurospeleo.eu/eurospeleo-projects/
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝘀 𝟯𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲.
