Muscat: Oman’s two million-year-old Al Hoota cave will expand facilities and renovation work to increase the number of visitors to the cave, Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.
Director of operations of Al Hoota cave Salim Bin Ali Al Shaksi said in a statement that there is a study to make improvements to the facilities that include expanding the place for visitors to the cave.
The number of visitors to the cave before the COVID-19 pandemic varied between fifty-thousand and sixty-thousand visitors annually, but the number has now dropped to twelve-thousand.
Al Hoota is located at the foot of Jabal Shams, Oman‘s highest mountain. The cave is one of Oman’s most popular natural tourist attractions.
The cave contains a rich ecosystem and there are 4 lakes inside, 3 of which are located in the north of the cave, and the other is located in the middle of the cave and can be visited on foot. It is estimated that the lake contains about thirty-thousand cubic meters of water, and its length is 800 meters, its width is 10 meters, and its maximum depth is about 15 meters.
It is noteworthy that the Al Hoota cave was formed as a result of the chemical and hydrographic erosion of limestone by acidic water, and extends more than 5 kilometres underground.