Huge Underground Chamber Reported Discovered in Oman
The world’s second-largest known subterranean chamber has been discovered by government water resources experts in northern Oman, officials said Tuesday.
The cavern is second only to Malaysia’s Sarawak Chamber in size and is within similar limestone terrain, they said.
The weekly newspaper Akhbar Oman said the chamber, 1,017 feet long and 738 feet wide, with a domed ceiling 394 feet high, was found at Jabal Bani Jabir, north of Muscat.
The chamber, with an unsupported roof, has a floor area of 625,000 square feet, the newspaper said.
Creatures including lizards, snakes and spiders were found in the cavern, some of them having adapted to life underground, where temperature is at a constant 63 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with up to 105 on the surface.
The Sarawak Chamber, discovered in 1980, is 2,300 feet long with an average width of 980 feet and a minimum height of 230 feet.
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