دحل المسفر

Dahl Al Misfir - Musfur Sinkhole

Useful Information

Location:	Salwa Road exit 35 (25.1751410, 51.2117201)
Open:	All year daily during daylight. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=78 m, VR=39 m, A=45 m asl.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Musfur Sinkhole
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1908	visited by Lorimer.
2004	Surveyed by Martin Ellis, Laurentzius and Sehested.
NOV-2022	new trails and educational sign inaugurated to the public by Minister of Environment and Climate Change HE Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al-Thani.

Description

The name دحل المسفر is translated Dahl Almosafer or Dahl Al-Musfar. It is also listed as Misrif Cave, Musfer Sinkhole, Dahl al Misfer, Dahl Al Misfir, Light Cave, Dahal as Sifar, or Musfur Sinkhole. For reasons, we do not understand, it seems that Musfur Sinkhole is the most commonly used name in English literature, even on local websites, so we decided to use this name, although we think that it is a mistranslation. Dahl actually translates hole, which may be interpreted as doline as well as cave.

This is a karst cave of some size, and like most such caves, the natural entrance is the result of a collapse, also named a doline or sinkhole. Nevertheless, the main thing is: this is a cave which is entered through the sinkhole, not just a sinkhole. Such sites are called sinkholes only if there is no access to the cave below.

The cave has a huge collapse entrance which is 12 m wide and 4 m high. A trail leads down a slope of boulders from the collapse. There is also a lot of sand which was blown in through the entrance. The cave is located in limestone and dolomite, but it reaches the Lower Damman Unit and Rus Formation gypsum layers below. As a result there are gypsum minerals at the walls in the lower part of the cave. On the other side, the cave is a single huge chamber with a length of 78 m, and a continual downslope. The end of the chamber is 39 m below the entrance. There are no erosional forms, but also no solutional forms at the wall, and there are no speleothems on walls and ceiling. It seems the current chamber is the result of ongoing Speleology incasion, the original karst cave seems to be below the current cave and filled with debris. Its even possible that the cave originally formed in the gypsum below and then started to slowly move upwards through the limestone.

Being the only such site in the country and being freely accessible, the cave is used for climbing and bouldering. There is a topo on facebook, see link below. Unfortunately this popularity has a drawback, there is increasing vandalism. Increasing graffiti and garbage in the cave finally lead to a closure in 2022. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC), in cooperation with Qatar Museums (QM) and ExxonMobil Research Qatar explored, surveyed, and finally developed it. They even made a 3D model of the cave using LIDAR. There are now safe access paths, protective barriers, shaded rest areas, and an educational signboard with a cave map. It’s still not a show cave, but it’s definitely an easy semi-wild cave.p