Al-Qarah Mountain (Saudi Arabia)

Al-Qarah mountain named after Al-Qarah village which is belong to. also it's called " Al-Shaba'an " because it's among the palm trees and the rivers , and it has wild high caves which is cold at summer.[2] It's likely that the first inhabitants of Al-Qarah village which has the mountain in it, is pre-Islamic tribe , they were skilled at archery so it's called " Al-Qarah " due to that , but the site landforms tells that the name is referred to "black, small, single, round and high mountain " . moreover , some of history books inform that Al-Qarah mountain is what intended by the name " Al-Mushaqqar " which was mentioned by historians and travelers . therefore , " Hamad Al-jaser " write in his book " Geographical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia - Eastern Province - Section Four " the historian had different opinions about the location of Al-Mushaqqar , so some said it's in Al-Hejaz , or in a valley Eja'a " one of Tae'a mountains " , or in a fort in Al-Bahrain , and the last one is the famous one " While abdul-Khaleq Al-Janbi confirms that Al-Qarah named by that because its south is connected to a huge strange shape and formation hill with vary sizes caves , also , there is a big rock above it and it's carved in wondrous way , in total it has three heads , the first one is to south and look like a woman head , the second one it to the north and look like a man head , the third one between them and look like a lion .this mountain still called " Ra'as Al-Qarah " which is meant by Arabic geographers . " it a divine formation , and human didn't do anything about that " Al-Janbi said in his book . Al-Mushaqqar also was mentioned in the fourth section of " Mou'jam Ma Esta'ajam " - it's a dictionary - for Abu Ubaid Al-Bakry . Ibn Al-E'erabi said " Al-Mushaqqar : a great ancient city , has a fortress in the middle , on a Qarah called Attalah and on the top of it there is a well that makw a hole of Al-Qarah until it get to the ground , so it's absorbed by the ground . All hajer water Exude in that well in its increasing "

The mountain located in Al-Ahsa oasis between four villages which is : Al-Qarah , At-Tuwaitheer , Ad-Dalwah and At-tihemeah.[3]

The base area of Al-Qarah mountain is about 14 square kilo meters and consists of reddish colored sedimentary rocks . Also the caves' temperature is semi-steady and moderate along the year and it's about 20 C ° , accompanying with gentle and cool airflow from inside the cave to outside.[4] As well , it's consist of limestone , sandstone , marlstone and siltstones , while the uncovered base of the mountain composed of a thin layer of marlstone topped with layer of Breccias rocks up to 17 m , followed by limestone and sandstone with thickness of 18 m , after that there is a 75 m thickness of sequential layers of grey crumbling sandstone with intermittent layers red marl and marl-alluvial , ends up with a cover of 2 m of limestone. several types of the mountain's caves extend in a form of ribbed grids of cracked ground , while the others are cavities due to chemical weathering , abrasion process and collapses .

There is 3 types of caves in Al-Qarah mountain:[5] 1- First type formed due to dissolving and abrasion process of water-soluble rocks , and it is the most common type of limestone caves detected in Saudi Arabia. 2- Second type is a result of collapses of the upper layers because of chemical weathering and abrasion, therefore, lower layers removal, which lead to the formation of wide caves sometimes . the most famous cave of this type is located at the west of the mountain and called Al-Eid cave " Maqarat Al-Eid ", in which the events accompanying with collective wedding take a place there, and it is held annually.

3- Third type formed because of earthquake Fissures and it is a cavernous system that takes a regular form of straight fissures , corridors like . The number of this straight corridors reaches 28 with length of 1.5 km . the most famous cave of this type is Al-Nashab cave which has been invested by Ahsa Tourism company under the name " Land of Civilizations project in Al-Qarah mountain" Each one of the caves has natural characteristics which made the locals take advantages of it based on their usage . so there is cave for the annual collective wedding , and the other for tourists . among the most famous caves in the mountain is : • Bu Saleh ( Al mahdi ) • Al Eid • An Naqa • Al Mua'adhamah • Al Maheub • Al Gairan • Al Nashab • Um Aljamajem

there is a popular belief that the caves in the mountain formed as a result of tides , based on a study was done at 1978 , however , at 2006 other study denied this allegation.[6]

Until 2016 , Al-Qarah was one of the responsibilities of Al ahsa municipality , despite useless repeated attempt to register it at the list of UNESCO world heritage centre , after that , Ahsa Tourism company " Ahsana" invested the mountain to develop it as a modern tourist facility. The tourism projects' cost which was done by the company was about 100 million Saudi Riyal . The project named " Land of Civilizations " , and the project includes preparing the main cave , lighting and leveling its ground. It also includes museum of history of Hajer " Al Ahsa name formerly " , stepped theater , new cafes and shops . This contributed to hold weekly activates ,between cultural evenings , music , arts and visual shows

Some of the caves are characterized by moderate temperatures, which is relatively constant (21-23 °C ) along the year , comparing to the temperature outside the cave or at its outer surface , which gives the feeling that inside the cave is warmer during the winter ,even though it is the same temperature during the summer.[7] The reason of the regular temperature is the thermal insulation of the rocks and the caves are not exposed to direct sun . Also cause of cool airflow is the temperature difference between inside the cave and outside

The mountain was for Bani Muhareb from abdul-Qais till The third century in Hijri Popular beliefs: Habits and traditions Because of the different terrain of each cave , the caves used by the residents in the past and until now like Al-Eid cave for weddings , Al-Nashab cave for tourism and Um Aljamajem cave which recently used for hiking trips since the end of 2019

The caves were used as a place for education before the Formal education , so the teachers were gathering the children at the courtyards of the mountain or at the entrances of the caves, to teach them reading Al-Qur’an One of the habits that were popular in the past , that the people of close villages were burring their special documents in the mountain , so the mountain has a lot of valuable documents and the histories of some families of Al-Ahsa.[8]

The people of the Filipino community in Saudi Arabia call Al-Nashab cave by the name " Judah cave " Because they believe it is the cave that Judas Iscariot committed suicide at it but the source of this belief is unknown and how this community came with it.

• Al-Ahsa