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2008; Abdul-Wahab, 2003; Al-Hashim et al., 2014; Al-Hinai et al., 1993; Al-Ma-
hrouqi, 2004; Ramadan, 2015; Taylor et al., 2009; Wippel, 2013; Zurigat et al.,
2003] do not address the Jeballi house, as well.

CAVE DWELLINGS

Captain Stafford Haines [Haines, 1845] visited Dhofar between 1829 and
1835 and recorded that the Bedouins, who travel from place to place tending
their livestock, live in caves during the monsoon season.
In 1894, Theodore Bent [Bent, 1900] described the cave dwellings of the
Al-Qarāʾ Mountains :
1
“...in their cave dwellings, we found men, women and children living with
their flocks and herds in happy harmony.ˮ
Continuing, Theodore Bent notes that the floors of the caves are soft,
covered with the dung of livestock that has accumulated over the years. The
climate inside the caves is cooler than outside. In some caves, children can be
left alone while their mothers go out into the countryside to gather fruit. In some
caves, one can find huts for individual families or entire villages. On his way
back from the mountains, about 19.3 km from Al Hafa or half a day’s journey
from Dhofar (now Salalah), he noted a cave, full of stalactites, containing
abandoned huts of a Bedouin tribe. They inhabit it only during the rainy season.
Beneath the cave, there were the remains of a settlement made of stone.
Bertram Thomas [Thomas, 1931] travelled through the Rub’ al-Khali desert
in 1929–1930, and published his travel notes in the London Geographical Journal.
The journey began in Dhofar, and after crossing the plains he headed towards
the Gara Mountains through the Jurbaib and Gurzaz wadis (river valleys).
After spending the night in Naqah, they travelled through an area of caves, the
entrances of which were marked with bundles of straw and grass, indirectly
indicating that they were the homes of the Al-Khatiri tribe. According to
2
Thomas, the topographic structure of the Dhofar region consists of four belts
that run parallel to the coast of the Arabian Sea: Jurhaib – a plain by the sea;
Khutim – slopes oriented towards the sea, covered with low forest and mead-
ows; Qatan – a divide at an altitude of 914.4 meters; Najd – a sandy steppe.

Cave dwelling in the village of Kazmim
In the village of Kazmim, next to an asphalt road and then along a narrow
footpath there is a cave that was used as a habitat for humans and livestock until

1 The Qarāʾ Mountains in Dhofar, the southern province of the sultanate of Oman, are about
914.4 meters high, with one peak higher than 1,524 meters. The monsoon keeps the seaward (southern)
side of the mountains, as well as the coastal plain, fertile. A gradual slope leads northward from
the water divide to the Rubʿ al-Khali; valleys from the slope converge on Ramlat Al-Mughshin at
the desert’s edge” [Source: Arabia Deserts, Bedouin, Oases | Britannica, 2026/5/2].
2 The Al Kathiri family (Arabic: يريثكلا) is a royal family with strong influence in the
southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. One of the largest tribes in eastern Yemen and Oman with
representatives in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and East African countries such
as Kenya and Tanzania.