Bimmah Sinkhole / Hawiyat Najm Park – OmanTripper (original) (raw)

The Bimmah Sinkhole, located in Hawiyat Najm Park (هوية نجم في بمة ), literally meaning Meteor Fall Park in Arabic, is a sinkhole in the Muscat governorate of Oman. You can get to the sinkhole in about 1.5 hours from Muscat, and despite being technically in Muscat governorate, the sinkhole is actually very close to Al Sharqiyah region just off the high way to Sur, few kilometers before Tiwi. You can spend a couple of minutes just taking pictures of this amazing sinkhole, or more than an hour swimming in the clear turquoise water, but either way you should definitely stop here if you are heading to Al Sharqiyah governorate. We usually visit Bimmah Sinkhole on our way back from a trip to Wadi Shab or Wadi Al Arbaeen.

Bimmah Sinkhole is located in the fenced and toilet-equipped Hawiyat Najm Park. It has recently become a very popular destination for visitors and many come here to see the unique formation, to have a swim in the water, or to just hang around the park and have a barbecue.

If you are not familiar with the term sinkhole, you might be mislead by the Arabic naming of the place and the local legend, which says that the hole was formed due to a meteor falling in this spot. However, Bimmah Sinkhole occurred naturally due to limestone erosion and the collapse of the rocks forming what you see. Apparently the sinkhole is also connected to the sea through an underground tunnel, which may explain the unique color of the water; however, we could not confirm this since we are not professional divers!

If you visited Bimmah Sinkhole and are wondering how deep the water is, then have a a look at this “Make It Count” advertisement, by Nike (skip to 2:42 for the scene but you should watch the whole video because it is very nice and there are other spots of Oman featured):

Disclaimer : OmanTripper does not recommend you jumping in Bimmah Sinkhole, and we are in no way responsible if you injure yourself trying that.

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