Aïn Taïba: A Breathtaking Oasis in the Middle of the Sahara Desert
If you’re looking for an awe-inspiring destination to travel to, look no further than Aïn Taïba. This breathtaking oasis is located in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and it’s a must-see for anyone visiting Morocco. Aïn Taïba is known for its lush green gardens and tranquil atmosphere, and it’s the perfect place to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. So if you’re looking for an unforgettable experience, be sure to ad Aïn Taïba to your travel itinerary. You won’t regret it!
– Aïn Taïba is known for its lush green gardens and tranquil atmosphere, and it’s the perfect place to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
– So if you’re looking for an unforgettable experience, be sure to add Aïn Taïba to your travel itinerary. You won’t regret it!
– A must-see for anyone visiting Morocco.
– An awe-inspiring destination to travel to.
Aïn Taïba is a breathtaking oasis located in the middle of the Sahara Desert. If you’re looking for an unforgettable experience, be sure to add Aïn Taïba to your travel itinerary. You won’t regret it! A must-see for anyone visiting Morocco. An awe-inspiring destination to travel to.
Check out our latest blog post: “Aïn Taïba: A Breathtaking Aïn Taïba to your travel itinerary! A must-see for anyone visiting Aïn Taïba is known for its lush green gardens and tranquil atmosphere, and it’s the perfect place to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. So if you’re looking for an unforgettable experience, be sure to add Aïn Taïba to your travel itinerary.
The cave is in the Aïn Taïba oasis, Algeria.
The cave has a surface area of about 8500 square meters and a volume of 1 million cubic meters.
It’s a pit cave formed by karst erosion in the Pliocene-Quaternary sediments of the Taoudenni Formation that is exposed along a northwest-southeast axis.
It’s 400 meters long and has two levels: the cave level formed by cave sediments, and the pit cave formed by inselberg sediments.
It opened in 1978 and was explored to about 300 meters distance from cave entrance.
It has the last level of cave development in Algeria and it is not actively explored by cave divers.
The cave was discovered in 1978 when a farmer witnessed a fall of ground near his well that revealed an opening into the cave interior.
It’s “believed to be the cave with the most extensive development in Algeria”.
This cave is part of a cave system deep under Aïn Taïba oasis.
The cave was first explored by cavers where they discovered cave sediments, flows of sand and silt. They were able to go through the cave to about 300 meters distance from cave entrance. [4]
In the 1990s, cave divers explored cave passages to a depth of -32 m where they discovered a siphon. They didn’t have enough time to explore this last part as they needed air supply from surface and there was no way to bring it down into the cave. It is still not explored cave passage.
Quarries are located all around the cave entrance that work by burning rocks and then crushing them to make gravel for construction with water cannons. This creates large amounts of debris that pollutes the surrounding area with toxic metals like lead, manganese, nickel and zinc. It also causes cave-ins inside cave passages.
The cave is in a protected area with multiple uses: agriculture, mining and touristic activities. This last one means that the cave gets more visitors every year with about 5 000 cave visitors each year from all around the world. [10] [9]
The cave hosts bats and cave spiders and also aquatic beetles and cave fish.
The cave has no official name but cave divers call it Aïn Taïba, which is the name of the oasis where cave entrance is located.
Cave passages pass under quarries that are part of a cave system with more than 9 km length and 2 levels (cave level and cave pit level).
There are several factors believed to have influenced cave development in the Aïn Taïba cave: dissolution, collapse and solution. Solution has created cave sediments below the cave level. Collapse has created dykes of collapsed layers in cave passages. Dissolution is related to cave formation at large scale because the cave is part of a large cave system of more than 9 km length.
There are large siphons in cave passages that cave divers explored to -32 m depth. They didn’t explore the last parts of the cave because of lack of air supply and too long exploration times (10 hours). It is believed more passages exist, but cave divers couldn’t explore it because cave passages don’t always follow the vertical and horizontal axis of the cave.
Bat guano is a valuable source for nitrates, phosphates and ammonium compounds that are used as fertilizers. It was harvested from cave passages until 1986 when bat colonies started to decline due to disturbance by visitors.
Cave passages are home to cave spiders that catch small cave invertebrates, cave beetles and cave fish. Cave spiders are also present in cave pools. They are usually nocturnal due to the lack of food during the day, they rely on cave beetles for most of their diet.
The Aïn Taïba cave harbors cave spiders and cave beetles.
Cave fish was discovered in early 2000s when cave explorers found some dead cave fish among other cave invertebrates. They also saw a few living cave fish at some pools of the cave.
Insects that can be found in Aïn Taïba cave: cave beetles and cave spiders.
Cave passages are covered with flowstones and cave crystals.
The Aïn Taïba cave has no official name but cave divers call it Aïn Taïba, which is the name of the oasis where cave entrance is located.
Image Information: By Eric Gaba (<a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sting” title=”User:Sting”>Sting</a> – <a href=”https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Sting” class=”extiw” title=”fr:Utilisateur:Sting”>fr:Sting</a>) – <span class=”int-own-work” lang=”en”>Own work</span>Sources of data:SRTM30 Plus;NGDC World Data Bank II (public domain);NGDC GSHHS (public domain);Reference for the boundaries: <a rel=”nofollow” class=”external text” href=”http://www.sgiiar.org/agroeco”>SGIIAR</a> (Système de Gestion Intégré de l’Information Agricole et Rurale of Algeria)., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
