Jabal Qihwi has a prominence of 1,435 m (4,708 ft) and a topographic isolation of 23.36 km (14.52 mi),[1] and rises in the central area of the western boundary of the drainage divide of Karsha / Wadi Khabb Shamsi.

Its summit lies on the drainage divide, between the basins of the Wadi Khabb Shamsi (which pours into the Gulf of Oman) and the Wadi Bih, which has its main sources of origin on the southern and eastern slopes of the Jabal Al Harim (2,087 m (6,847 ft)), also in the Musandam Governorate, and pours into the Persian Gulf, landing in United Arab Emirates territory.

The route employs a good deal of the river bed of the Wadi Khabb Shamsi and some of its tributaries, and to cross the mountain range overcomes an accumulated positive slope of 1,750 m (5,740 ft) and a negative slope of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

[7] The name of the Jabal Qihwi (with the spellings Jabal Qa'wah and Jabal Qa'awah) appears recorded in the documents and maps prepared between 1950 and 1960 by the British Arabist, cartographer, military officer and diplomat Julian F. Walker, for the work carried out to establish the borders between the then called Trucial States, later completed by the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, on 1:100,000 scale maps published in 1971,[8] and in other previous documents kept in the National Archives of the United Kingdom.

The geographical area of Jabal Qihwi was historically populated by the semi-nomadic Shihuh tribe, section of Bani Shatair (Arabic: بني شطير),[9] one of the two main sections of the tribe, which occupied, among other territories, the tribal areas of Maqadihah and Dihamara.