The Sultan's Treasures and the smell of the grave. Scientists have discovered what is at the bottom of the Hellish Well in Yemen (4 photos)

Hell's Well - that's what the locals call the Barhuta Hole. This unusual funnel has existed in Yemen since ancient times, attracting the attention of tourists and speleologists.





The locals believed that the Sultan's treasures were there. And they were guarded by genies and dead people, because the smell from there was "graveyard-like". Of course, you can come up with any nonsense and fairy tales. But these tales had prototypes. An unpleasant smell of decomposition really does come from the hole. And the Sultan's treasures have eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen them from afar.

Interestingly, both of these legends were partly confirmed. Let's see what scientists actually found at the bottom of the giant well.

Of course, the hole immediately became overgrown with legends and mysterious ominous stories. Scientists did not show much interest in the funnel for a long time, but two years ago, speleologists finally went down into the hole and took samples. Interestingly, some legends of local residents were even confirmed!

The funnel itself is conical in shape. The diameter of the outer hole is about 30 meters. Towards the bottom, the funnel widens - the diameter of the bottom already reaches 120 meters. Its depth turned out to be 112 meters.



The first layer of the funnel is quite porous and water seeps through here. And about halfway through, the layer becomes denser and impermeable. This led to the formation of four beautiful waterfalls. And where there is water in the cave, there are stalagmites.

The Sultan's treasures turned out to be cave pearls. They begin to form long before the bottom and even on the first layer. Apparently, someone in ancient times, using a rope, still risked going down into the well shallowly. And scooped up some of the "treasures".





Cave pearls in a hellish column in Yemen

Such treasures are scattered in caves all over the world. Here, for example, is what cave pearls in Carlsbad Cave in America look like:



Cave pearls are formed in a similar way to those of mollusks. However, they do not have the same jewelry value.

They are formed around an embryo. The nucleus is usually a grain of sand, sometimes a piece of wood. The process of crystallization of calcium carbonate begins around the nucleus. And this pearl is obtained. Most often, they appear where water constantly drips. It turns over the forming pearls and does not allow them to grow to the surface.

Only in Barkhut do cave pearls have an emerald-gold color. And from afar it can easily be mistaken for treasure.

Also at the bottom of the funnel crawl snakes and various arthropods, which snakes feed on.

The grave smell is caused by the corpses of animals, mainly birds, which accumulate here below. There were quite a few of them at the bottom. Apparently, birds fly here, hiding from the heat. And, having sunk to the bottom, many cannot get out - it is difficult to take off from such a depth.

There are two main hypotheses about the origin of the cave.

The mouth of an underground volcano. Now it is calm, but once upon a time it was raging.

A natural well. This often happens when water washes away several layers over millions of years and a similar failure is formed. Most likely, this is what happened once with the Hellish Well.