Comparisons to the topography of Mars were made repeatedly, which helped me decide on my subsequent career as a location scout for sci-fi movies, if Saudi Arabia ever does decide to open up to Hollywood film crews. About six hours later we exited off the main Riyadh-Makkah highway and drove through several very small communities and lava fields until the end of the newly paved road, where four metal poles stop cars from driving any farther. The road ends exactly at the crater’s rim. The crater is spectacularly massive. It is roughly two kilometers wide, situated on the edge of the Harrat Kishb lava field. The edge drops by around 250 meters to the base, making for an extreme cliff edge. According to Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanoes, the crater is a result of a “phreatic explosion caused by the near-instantaneous generation of steam at the contact between rising magma and ground water.”
In layman terms it means very hot lava came into contact with water, causing a massive instant eruption, resulting in this huge hole in the middle of what is now a desert. The crater’s floor is a saltpan; the center almost entirely covered by a thin white sheet, although apparently in the winter it turns into a small lake. We arrived right before sunset. The intense color disparity between the backdrop of the black lava fields, white salt at the bottom of the crater, and a blue sky tinged with the gold of the setting sun made for an impressive end to the drive. Photos sent to a Saudi friend promoted an incredulous response: “Are you guys even in Saudi?” It’s impressively enormous in real life, and the photographs don’t do justice to the loneliness of the crater’s isolation. The photographs also fail to capture the echo of the wind blowing over the lava field and that, quite possibly, was the best part.
THE CRATER IS SPECTACULARLY MASSIVE. IT IS ROUGHLY 2KM WIDE, SITUATED ON THE EDGE OF THE .HARRAT KISHB LAVA FIELD
* The Wabha Crater is under the protection of the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) which strives to promote ecotourism. Camping is permitted but there are no amenities provided for visitors, and those who decide to camp are asked to also remove any trash they accumulate to preserve the area. DESTINATION RIYADH 23