Malcham cave () is the longest
salt cave A salt cave is a cave formed within rock salt by the dissolution of this very soluble rock by water. As with other soluble rocks, a distinctive set of landscape features can arise from the solutional process; in this case it is known as salt karst ...
in the world, located in
Mount Sodom
Mount Sodom (, ''Har Sedom'') is a hill along the southwestern part of the Dead Sea in Israel; it is part of the Judaean Desert Nature Reserve. It takes its name from the biblical city of Sodom, whose destruction is the subject of a narrative i ...
, by the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
.
History
In March 2019 it has been revealed, by an international team, led by the Israeli geologist professor
Amos Frumkin, after a second measurement that its length is almost two times longer than was measured back in the 1980s.
[
]
Structure
The cave was measured over a period of two years and has a length of over that will continue to increase as more salt dissolves. The salt cave that was previously thought to be the longest was the -long Cave of the Three Nudes, located on
Qeshm Island
Qeshm (Persian language: قشم) is an arrow-shaped Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz of the Persian Gulf (), measuring roughly 1,500 square kilometres (576 square miles) in surface area. Separated from the Iranian mainland by the Claren ...
in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
.
[
]
See also
* Geology of Israel
The geology of Israel includes igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rocks from the Precambrian overlain by a lengthy sequence of sedimentary rocks extending up to the Pleistocene and overlain with alluvium, sand dunes and playa deposits.
...
* List of longest caves by country
References
External links
*
Caves of Israel
Judaean Desert
{{Israel-geo-stub