Al Wahbah crater

In the middle of the dark lava plains of western Saudi Arabia the ground opens into an almost perfect bowl about 2 km across and roughly 250 metres deep, its floor gleaming white. Al Wahbah crater, also known as Maqla Tamiyyah, is one of the best-known volcanic landforms in Saudi Arabia: steep, nearly circular walls of layered rock enclose a flat bed of white sodium phosphate crystals that looks like snow or a dried-up lake from the rim.

The crater sits on the western edge of Harrat Kishb, a basalt lava field of nearly 6,000 square kilometres in the Hejaz that is dotted with volcanic cones. Its round shape and high walls once led to suggestions that it was made by a meteorite, as at Barringer Crater in Arizona. Geologists now regard it as a maar – a crater blasted out by a steam explosion when rising basaltic magma met groundwater, leaving a hole rather than a cone.

Most of the rim falls away in sheer cliffs, but on the north side a path leads down to the floor, a descent of up to an hour with a longer climb back. Halfway down are springs and the remains of abandoned date palm plantations, a reminder that water collects even in this arid hollow. The rim has picnic shelters and a short stretch of stone wall, and the crater receives relatively few visitors, which only adds to the sense of standing at the edge of an enormous, silent amphitheatre.

Getting there

The crater lies in open desert about 71 km from the town of Mahd adh Dhahab in a straight line and roughly 250 km by road from the city of Ta'if. The nearest airport is Taif International Airport (TIF), about 168 km away.