شلال جرزيز

Ayn Jarziz - Ain Garziz

Useful Information

Location:	Salalah. From Salalah follow (Itin Street) north across the coastal plain, at the roundabout 700 m before the hills turn right and follow the valley upstream to the end of the road. (17.107042, 54.075506)
Open:	no restrictions. [2023]
Fee:	free. [2023]
Classification:	Rimstone Pool Tufa Deposits Tufa Cave
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Ayn Jarziz.
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

Description

شلال جرزيز (Ayn Jarziz) is often called a spring, its also called a waterfall or a lake. Actually all of this is only partly right. The wadi (valley) with its intermittent river is fed by karst water. Like the Plitvize Lakes in Croatia the limestone precipitates, forms dams, damming the river into pools which are like the steps of a staircase. This is called rimstone pools. The situation here quite similar, with one big difference: the river is dry most of the year, and so the pools become terraces, the dams become vertical walls formed of tufa, the plunging water forms small waterfalls or vanishes completely.

The site is called Ain Garziz and has a parking lot located in the dry riverbed, a 170 m gorge with tufa walls on both sides leads to a waterfall with a plunge pool at the foot. If there is water, the plunge pool fills with water and is used for bathing. On the right side is a tufa cave which formed during the desposition of the tufa. There is a trail with railings leading into the small cave. It is named كهف جرزيز الصغير (kahf jarziz alsaghir, Little Garziz Cave).

This is not the only such place in the wadi, but the biggest. The second largest is the (Ittin Waterfall) located 800 m upstream. Along the road and in the riverbed, there are frequent tufa deposits forming dams or blocks of rock. The bigger blocks are used for climbing.

We read in one source the spring produced 42 l/s or 151 m²/h. However, the source is not the pool at the foot of the cliff.