Al-Qarah mountain "Jabal Al-Qarah" also known as "Al-shaba'an mountain" located between At-Tuwaitheer village and Al-Qarah village in Al-ahsa at the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. This mountain counts as one of the most important natural sights in Al-Ahsa and is registered in the UNESCO world heritage centre's list in 2018, after the inclusion of Al-Ahsa oasis. It's positioned 15 kilometers away of Al-hofuf east. The mountain has caves, and some of them, such as "Al-Nashab cave", have a moderate steady temperature throughout the year.

Naming

Al-Qarah mountain is named after Al-Qarah village which it belongs to. It's also sometimes called "Al-Shaba'an" because it's situated among palm trees and rivers, and it has wild high caves which is cold in the summer. It's likely that the first inhabitants of Al-Qarah village which has the mountain in it, were a 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 "

Geographical location

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

Geology

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. 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 a 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.

Caves and Cavities

There is 3 types of caves in Al-Qarah mountain: 1- First type formed due to the dissolving and abrasion process of water-soluble rocks, and it is the most common type of limestone cave 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 leads 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 is formed because of earthquake Fissures and it is a cavernous system that takes a regular form of straight fissures, and corridors like. The number of these straight corridors reaches 28 with a 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 advantage of it based on their usage like the annual collective wedding, and other activities 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

Caves formation

There is a popular belief that the caves in the mountain formed as a result of tides, based on a study that was done in 1978, however, in 2006 another study denied this allegation.

Renovation and tourism investment works

Until 2016, Al-Qarah was one of the responsibilities of Al ahsa municipality, despite the useless repeated attempts 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 thr museum of history of Hajer "Al Ahsa name formerly", stepped theater, new cafes, and shops. This contributed to holding weekly activates, between cultural evenings, music, arts, and visual shows.

The mountain climate

Some of the caves are characterized by moderate temperatures, which are relatively constant (21-23 °C) throughout the year, compared 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. The reason for the regular temperature is the thermal insulation of the rocks and the caves are not exposed to direct sun. Also from the cool airflow temperature difference between inside the cave and outside.

History

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.

Education

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. ديوان ابن مقرب العيوني، تحقيق عبد الخالق الجنبي، وعبد الغني عرفات، وعبد الله البيگ، المركز الثقافي للنشر والتوزيع، بيروت، 1424هـ/2003م، جـ2/1231.