مُحَافَظَة ظُفَّار

Dhofar Governorate

Dhofar Governorate is located in southern Oman, on the border with Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The largest city and capital is Salalah.

This southwestern region is special for its two to three months of monsoon every year in July and August. This wet season is locally called Khareef season. During this time the weather is rainy, there is fog, the sky is clouded, it rains. Not as much as in India, not those extremely heavy rains, but still quite rainy. The landscape is green, full of grass, shrubs and even small trees. The Wadis are reactivated, the springs produce water, and the rivers flow.

As the mountain ridge north of Salalah is composed of limestone, it is karstified. Nevertheless, there is above-ground drainage during Khareef season. Tufa barriers exist in any wadi of the area, which create numerous waterfalls. Sometimes the plunge pools are used for bathing. The tufa deposits have numerous small caves, shelters, overhanging rocks, and even some speleothems, mostly stalactites. As a result, most underground sites of Oman are located in this area.

The tufa is the precipitated limestone, its origin is in the huge cave systems underground. Such cave systems are as far as we know not accessible to tourists. Nevertheless, there are two huge sinkholes east of Salalah where such caves collapsed and created huge holes. Both can be seen from outlooks at the rim.