كهف أم جرسان

Um Jarsan Cave


Useful Information

Location: Khaybar, 43863.
(25.5889314, 39.7569495)
Open: no restrictions.
[2026]
Fee: free.
[2026]
Classification: SpeleologyLava Tube
Light: bring torch
Dimension: L=1,500 m, W=45 m, H=12 m.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography: Mathew Stewart, Eric Andrieux, et.al. (2024): First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia PLoS ONE 19(4): e0299292. DOI online
Address: Um Jarsan Cave, Khaybar, 43863, Tel: +$CountryTelPrefix$-, Fax: +$CountryTelPrefix$-,
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

2009 cave explored by scientists from the Max Planck Institute.
2019 begin of archaeological research by the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University.

Description

photography
كهف أم جرسان (Um Jarsan Cave), Saudi Arabia. Public Domain.

كهف أم جرسان (Um Jarsan Cave, Umm Jirsan Cave) is quite famous, there is a public domain picture available on the internet which is used on dozens of pages. In general the text implies that it is the respective cave, but they are all wrong. The research took two years and the result is not one hundred per cent certain, but for the first time we have a reliable source and were thus able to attribute the image with a high degree of probability. This is the main entrance of Um Jarsan Cave seen from the inside.

This cave is quite remote, 20 km on bad roads from the next hamlet, 125 km north of Medina. Nevertheless, there is a road sign in Farsi and English and a stone staircase down into the sinkhole of entrance 1. As often with lava tubes the cave has several collapses and thus multiple entrances, but there is only a single cave passage. The most popular tour through the cave is a through tour from entrance 1 to entrance 2. The development with the plaster trail and the stone staircase actually ends at the cave entrance. The cave passage has a dirt track which is rather comfortable and as the passage is horizontal there are no difficult sections. There are trails, a wall around the doline, signs at the road, and even parking lot, so we decided to classify it as a show cave, although it is actually a rather wild show cave. There are tour operators which guide the cave, the day trips also include the drive to the cave and probably other interesting stops along the road, so we strongly recommend to book such a trip at your hotel. It seems this is one of the new ecotourism destinations which the Saudi Geological Survey plans to increase tourism.

Um Jarsan Cave is located in the Harrat Khaybar lava field The cave passage is 1.5 km long and mostly quite spacious, typically the passage is 12 m high and 45 m wide. After the first research in 2009 it was the longest known lava tube in the Arabian Peninsula. This is not true any more, another lava tube with a length of 3.7 km has been surveyed since.

The cave has numerous archaeological and paleontological remains. It was first researched by the Heritage Commission, King Saud University, Saudi Geological Survey, and Germany’s Max Planck Institute in 2009. They found huge amounts of animal bones and traces of human habitation from the Neolithic period, between 7,000 and 10,000 BP. Archaeological excavations were made again 10 years later scientists from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University. There are even cave paintings showing a mixed herd of sheep and goats as well as an ibex and several human figures. They explored the multiple phases of human settlement from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. They also found out details about the diet of the human inhabitants, the animals they depended on, and their culture.