Mind the gap: tourists drawn to Oman's giant sinkholes
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This enormous sinkhole is one of four that dot Dhofar governorate, including one of the world's biggest: the yawning Kahf Teiq, up to 211 metres (692 feet) deep and 150 metres wide.
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At the Tawi Atair sinkhole, tourists potter around on concrete paths and stairways. Not all of the holes are so welcoming, however.
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The sheer drop of the Sheeheet pit, a 40-minute drive away along mountain roads, is ringed with slippery mud, prompting the authorities to put up a fence and warning signs.
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During AFP's visit, one tourist slipped and slid perilously close to the edge. Dhofar's governor, Marwan bin Turki Al-Said, gave assurances that safety was a priority at the sinkholes, in a briefing attended by AFP.
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Tawi Atair means 'Well of Birds' in Dhofar's regional language, a reference to the avian twittering, distorted by echoes, that reverberates off the rock.
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It lay unknown to the outside world until 1997, when a team of Slovenian researchers working with Oman's Sultan Qaboos University brought it to international attention.
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Now the sinkholes are marketed as a tourist attraction in Dhofar, whose temperate climate draws many visitors from the Gulf during its punishing summers.
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Dhofar folklore has it that the sinkholes were created by meteorite strikes, direct hits from outer space that gouged the colossal craters.
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But Ali Faraj Al-Kathiri, a geologist based in Dhofar, explains that water seeping into the porous limestone forms an acid that dissolves it, creating the caverns over a period of thousands of years.
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The Oman sinkholes are not to be confused with the 'Well of Hell,' the foul-smelling, pitch-black Barhout pit across the border in eastern Yemen that is reputed as a prison for demons.
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