4-D Geocaching: A Trip in Time

By Mohammad Al-Fares (mhfares)

"The sand in the backcountry is the reddest I've ever seen; it practically glows in the red down. There are high, bold hills with real cliffs on them rising six to eight hundred feet above the plains on the westward faces. We did not pass through many towns, but one, Marat, was as picturesque as you could wish. The earth is a reddish clay, and just outside the town is a high jabal that we climbed. We took pictures of the town spread out below us with its red-turreted walls, green gardens scattered over the plain, and the great pool in which they gather rainwater by a system of ditches."

Thomas Barger was one of the early pioneers who came to Saudi Arabia in 1937 to explore for oil. He retired 32 years later as CEO of Aramco, the largest oil producing company in the world. His letters to his wife during his early years were collected and published in a book titled "Out in the Blue, Letters from Arabia – 1937-1940". The above paragraph is an excerpt from that book and shows a picture of Marat, among others, that Barger took in the late 1939.

Being a big fan of recent history of my area, I purchased the book to add to my collection. While reading, I came across several old pictures but the one for Marat captured my attention. It was close to my father's birth place. I remember stashing a cache in the vicinity of my parents old village; Thadeq cave (GCM862). Like Barger, they traveled east to the Arabian Gulf many years before his arrival. So in a way, this picture had some sentimental value to me especially since it was taken in a time and place where cameras and pictures were off limits.

Old Picture of Marat

Armed with the picture, my cousin and I headed to the town of Marat to see if we could find the jabal (mountain) from which the picture was taken. We also had plans for hiding a cache there. For those who are strangers to this land, Marat is a very small town, about 125 km North West of the capital, Riyadh. We were familiar with the general area but have not been to this particular town before.

Map of the area (by MAPQUEST)

The drive from Riyadh took us west on Mecca Highway. We passed through the famous Tuwaiq Mountains and took a right turn to the north. We were now driving parallel to the mountain ranges as we got closer to our destination. The drive was a scenic one and we had to cross some reddish dunes to the north end of the town before arriving late in the afternoon.

Rock formations along the way	Sand dunes near Marat

Map of the area (by MAPQUEST)

Not sure of what to expect, we headed to the downtown area. While driving in midtown, my cousin noticed a sign saying entrance to Kumait Mountain. We followed the sign which lead us to the entrance of a local park on top of the mountain.

What came after that was beyond our wildest imagination. We were counting this trip as a reconnaissance mission to be followed possibly by another one. Our aim was to collect visual data of the neighboring jabals and return home for comparisons with our picture. The mountain range in the background of the picture we had was our reference point. It took us only few minutes to realize that we were actually standing on the same mountain that Barger stood on some 67 years ago. In fact we were probably right at the same vantage point from which he took his picture.

Today's' picture of Marat

To our pleasant surprise, not only we were able to find the jabal but also recognize many of the features in the picture which are still standing today in front of us. The pool mentioned in the manuscript is still visible today as it was 67 years ago (lower left portion). Remains of the watchtower can be seen in the center right portion (marked by the arrow). In front of the watch tower (adjacent to the pool) is an empty ground that is still empty today. If you look closely, you could even see one of the ditches –encircled- (no, we didn't hide the cache there but it was tempting and worth looking into).

The mountain was referred to as Jabal Marat by Barger and is the famous Jabal Kumait mentioned in old history books. The view from the top is superb and we thought this is a good place for some family fun – If one has the original picture like we did, then it would be nice to bring along and play "Find the differences".

Now to the Cache (GCKE51)…. We thought what a better hiding place than the old village below and so we drove down through the remains of the old mud houses. It felt like a ghost town from an old western movie but the whole place was real and full of history. I was wondering what Barger was thinking of as he walked through these same roads 66 yeas ago. Was he thinking of his bride that he left in America thousands of miles away?

Old Village	Entrance to cache site

We didn't know when the village was last abandoned but judging from what is left, it seemed that the buildings were kept almost in their original conditions and left to decay. As we were driving, we came to one particular house that looked safe enough to walk into and so we pulled off to check it out.

Hiding place

The houses were two-story buildings. The ground floor was probably used for storage while the bedrooms were located up in the first floor. A stairway case supported by stones and wood provided a nice hiding place for our cache and so we did.

As we were returning home, it occurred to me that what we did today is one step ahead of the normal geocaching that we regularly do in three dimensional (3D) space by adding the time dimension to it. Could it be considered 4D geocaching? Here is how it goes:

Find a place that has an old picture dating many years back in time and stash a cache there. The cache seeker would search in space off course but will reflect in time as well. If the cache lasts long enough, the coordinates will remain fixed in space and the bagger will have a special opportunity to see how time has its toll on the surrounding terrain like we did today.

Imagine Barger stashing a cache then and we find it today. Wouldn't that be something extraordinary to talk about? Well, we will find out in our next piece brought to you from Arabia.

This cache is a tribute to Barger and the early pioneers of his time. To learn about the cache, click here.