qa

Qatar

State of Qatar


The State of Qatar is a country in the Middle East, occupying the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The Persian Gulf surrounds it on three side, only the southern border to Saudi Arabia is land. The Qatari peninsula protrudes 160 kilometres into the Persian Gulf and is mostly desert with rolling sand dunes. It has no mountains, the highest elevation 1s 103 m asl in the Jebel Dukhan to the west, a range of low limestone outcroppings. It contains Qatar’s main onshore oil deposits and has some karst features. The country’s natural gas fields are located off the coast, northwest of the peninsula.

Only three caves are known in Qatar, even though the country has many karst features. And those caves are called sinkholes, which is a mistranslation of the name, but also a misinterpretation. And there is even the nonsense that these are sinkholes because they have no bats. It seems there is no caving in the country, no local caving club. Geological research is always intended to find oil, water, or avoid possible hazards. On the other hand the caves which are called Dahl are of great importance, because when buildings are constructed, bulldozers reportedly have been breaking through and fell into previously unknown Dahls. Dahls frequently collapse in the country, so the question is, where are they? Most are gone, filled in by sand from the desert, or by humans who want to continue erecting the building. Martin Ellis who did intensive research on caves in Qatar could only identify three.

On the other hand there are numerous karst features on the surface, and in the arid climate with no vegetation, they are rather good to identify. There are solutional dolines, which form rounded depressions, and a unique feature called rawdahds (gardens). These are karst depressions which are deep enough and have fertile ground, to offer meadows or gardens. This is the result of the clay below ground, which keeps humidity at the surface, which drains underground in all other places.

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