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Not far from bale mountains is one of the
world’s most spectacular and extensive underground caverns: the
SofOmar cave system. Formed by the Web River as it changed its course
in the distant past and carved a new channel through limestone foothills,
Sof Omar is an extraordinary natural phenomenon of breathtaking
beauty.
Here, the Web River vanishes into this giant underground
world, now an important Islamic shrine named after the saintly shekh
Sof Omar, who took refuge here many centuries ago. it has a religious
history that, in fact, predates the arrival of the Muslims in Bale
–a history calibrated in thousands, not hundreds, of years.
The first religions in this part of Africa were
essentially spirit worship and ghost cults in which the most powerful
super natural beings were believed to attach themselves to trees,
rocks, and –most forcefully –to caves, which becomes shrines for
prayer and sacrifice. Even to day, the visitor to Sof Omadr can
see many signs of the persistence of such pagan beliefs and practices:
a group of men sacrificing a goat; tokens of leather and cloth hung
from rocky projections in the cave.
Your approach the caves through the tiny village of Sof Omar, perched
on the cliffs above the web River. To the rear of the village is
a dark, gaping crevice down which a precipitous narrow footpath
winds to the first cave’s floor. Only a few patches of sunlight
filter in to the dimly lit kingdom, which extends in all directions
through vast subterranean passageways of polished white limestone,
carved by the river’s flood and recess over countless ages.
In this realm of dry, cool caves nature has worked
a marvel of architecture –soaring pillars of stone twenty metres
(66 feet) high, flying buttresses, fluted archways, and tall airy
vaults. Finally, the river itself is reached, a sunless sea flowing
through a deep gorge. Standing on a balcony near the roof, one has
a spectacular view of the reiver rushing below.
Sof Omar’s large central hall, the Chamber of Columns’ –so named
after the colossal limestone pillars that are its dominant feature
–uis one of the highlights of the cave system. T another part of
he network there is a small gap in the rocks through which the river
passes, about two and a half metres (eight feet) wide, where a bridge
can be made with driftwood to go across. The most direct route through
the caves passes these and many other remarkable sights, and takes
about an hour at a good walking pace.
Inside the caves, the only living creatures are
bats (which do not usually trouble the visitor) and fish. Crocodile
are to be found in the river nearby bur, fortunately, seem to shun
the caves themselves. The countryside abounds with wild life—dik
dik and Kudu, several cat, rock hyrax, giant tortoises, snakes,
and lizards, as well as more than fifty species of birds.
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