Salalah in winter - Jabal Samhan and Tayq Cave

Jabal Samhan is a mountain range in Dhofar and it highest peak is at 2100m. It is running parallel with the coastline and provides absolutely stunning views. Most of its territory is a nature reserve as the last refuge for the endangered Arabian leopard. It is a restricted area camping and hiking are only allowed with permit - sadly we could not find info on how to get the permit therefore we only visited the viewing point  at 1300m and hiked in Tayq sinkhole.

Location for parking: 17.1539,54.6224

The mountain is part of the reason for the special climate in Dhofar and the khareef (which means autumn in Arabic) - the mountain stops the clouds. During khareef in Jabal Shaman you can easily be above the clouds - while in the coastline it is cloudy and moody, up on the mountain it is beautiful and sunny. During winter you can enjoy the almost undisturbed views of the plans between the mountain range and the ocean, observe the marks the temporary rivers carve into the ground.

Coffee and cake to die for!

The real highlight of the Jabal Samhan stay was the Tayq Sinkhole and Cave. Since limestone is prominent across the whole range, this area is home of many sinkholes - sinkholes are caused by water dissolving the karst limestone until the top layer of soil eventually collapses.  Tayq is  one of the biggest sinkholes in the world with around 1 km width and 250m depth. A short but absolutely stunning hike leads to the  cave which is roughly halfway through to the bottom.  The cave is quite big with really nice stalactite formations. The hike is marked with the usual tricolor flag - if you start walking to the right from the carpark, you will eventually see the first one. Allow 2-3 hours in total.

The sinkhole got filled with water in 2018 during the devastating cyclone which hit the area - it took 5 days for the water to drain! No wonder though - ceyclon Mekunu dropped 5 times the average annual rainfall in only 24 hours on Dhofar. It was devastating - roads disappeared, lakes formed in the desert triggering locust outbreak effecting 10 countries!

Must be absolutely stunning during rainy season - you can trace the waterfall!

This is how it looked when full... click on image for link!

We also visited Tawi Attair, an other sinkhole not far from Tayq. Frankly, this is not worth the time at least not during winter. It might have a small waterfall during khareef and I guess it is for reason they call it the bird well. But now it was overgrown and quite boring. Supposedly you can walk to the bottom if you jump the wall of the viewing platform and ignore the warning signs - we did not and some google reviews say the path is dangerous. GOSH HOW BAD WE WERE HERE!! CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO HERE!

Judge for yourself...

You can still see the aftermath of the cyclone which filled Tayq: