One of the Oman Cave Exploration Team’s cavers abseiling down the Barhout well, a sinkhole known as the “Well of Hell” in the desert of Yemen’s Al-Mahra province.

It is believed to be the first descent to the bottom of the forbidding sinkhole, whose dark and round aperture creates a 30m wide hole, plunging approximately 112m below the surface, forming a natural wonder shunned by many locals who believe it is a prison for genies.