If you have ever wondered where genies who break the law end up, then one possible candidate can be found in the Arabian peninsula.
The Well of Barhout in the al-Mahra province in Yemeni desert was explored to its full 112m depths - for the first known time ever - by a group of professional cavers from neighbouring Oman.
And what the Omani Caves Exploration Team (OCET) found inside is enough to send creeping shivers down the spine.
The eerie 'Well of Hell', as it is also known, is thought to be a jail for demonic genies in local folklore.
Such genies are known as Jinn, mischievous shape-shifters who can take many forms and even have physical relations with humans.
They are said to haunt the well - but don't get too close to the 30m opening as it also believed that anything near the hole will be sucked down into it.
But perhaps the most sinister aspect of the hellish well is its reputation as a gateway to the underworld, spurred on by locals reporting foul smells emanating from the hole.
Thankfully, but more prosaically, when the 10 spelunkers used a pulley system and made it to the bottom of the well last year they found no criminal genies or gates of fire.
Though they did find lot of snakes, frogs and beetles as well as bigger dead animals (who must have strayed too close to the well's opening).
They also found waterfalls, stalagmites and cave pearls, the latter of which are uncommon in subterranean places like this.
The well, which is actually a sinkhole, is thought to have formed millions of years ago, reports Live Science.
Sinkholes form the majority of the time when water underneath erodes and weakens the ground, causing it to collapse in on itself and leave a cavity.
Mohammed al-Kindi, a member of the OCET team and geology professor at Oman’s German University of Technology said about the daring expedition: "Passion drove us to do this.
"And we felt that this is something that will reveal a new wonder and part of Yemeni history."
