Wadi Esfai receives high levels of winter rainfall, sufficient to trigger flash floods powerful enough to wash away the road traversing the wadi[1] and will also receive rainfall in the summer months.[2]
Traditionally home to members of the Mazari tribe,[3] the wadi Esfai is notable particularly for the discovery of a new species of moth from the genus Meharia: Meharia breithaupti.[4] The Meharia moth was known to inhabit arid regions, and the related Meharia philbyi has been found in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman.[5]Meharia philbyi was named for the Arabist and explorer Harry St John Philby in 1952. The new moth was named for its discoverer, German entomologist Roland Breithaupt.[4]
A 1937 survey of wadis in Southeastern Arabia undertaken by the British Air Ministry found Wadi Esfai to be a 'valley of small villages of Mazari, acknowledging the Sheikh of Sharjah', an allegiance that appears to have changed in subsequent years.[6]
The road to the village of Esfai – washed away by the seasonal flooding of the Wadi Esfai.
Wild donkeys roaming the Wadi Esfai
The confluence of the Wadi Esfai with the Wadi Shawka
