Heet Cave

Heet Cave is a natural limestone cave in the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia, close to Al-Kharj Governorate. People come for its geology and its underground water. It is one of 1,826 caves and sinkholes recorded across 12 regions of the Kingdom, and the Quality of Life Program names it among the top 14 tourist and educational sites in the Riyadh region. This is a nature visit, so the draw is rock and water. The cave has a natural well nearly 15 metres deep, and its walls are limestone and anhydrite. Professional explorers have descended to an internal lake 120 metres below the surface and described the water as among the purest they had seen. Heet Cave is open 24 hours and has no minimum age. King Abdulaziz invited geologists to make the first survey of anhydrite rocks in Saudi Arabia, and researchers have come ever since, from the Kingdom and abroad. The deposits formed millions of years ago and hold records of past environments. Scientists use them to date the cave, trace prehistoric plant and animal life, and study carbon and sulfur isotopes that show ancient atmospheric conditions.