he Baatara gorge waterfall (Balaa gorge waterfall) is a waterfall in the Tannourine, Lebanon.[1]
The waterfall drops 255 metres (837 ft) into the Baatara Pothole, a cave of Jurassic limestone[2] located on the Lebanon Mountain Trail.[3]
Discovered in 1952 by French bio-speleologist Henri Coiffait,[4] the waterfall and accompanying sinkhole were fully mapped in the 1980s by the Spéléo club du Liban.[5] The cave is also known as the "Cave of the Three Bridges."[6] Traveling from Laklouk to Tannourine one passes the village of Balaa, and the "Three Bridges Chasm" (in French "Gouffre des Trois Ponts") is a five-minute journey into the valley below where one sees three natural bridges, rising one above the other and overhanging a chasm descending into Mount Lebanon. During the spring melt, a 90–100-metre (300–330 ft) cascade falls behind the three bridges and then down into the 250-metre (820 ft) chasm. A 1988 fluorescent dye test demonstrated that the water emerged at the spring of Dalleh in Mgharet al-Ghaouaghir